Unprofessional Behavior: A Case Study

Jerry Mason, senior vice president and general manager at Morton-Thiokol, and Morton-Thiokol were on the brink of negotiating the booster’ rocket contract renewal with NASA. Although, it is not an acceptable reason, we could see how engineers and others below the authority of Jerry could be afraid to state something contrary to what he stood by. When someone’s self-interest and pride gets in the way of engineering, it can neglect the welfare of the public, and cause them harm. This case study highlights many irresponsible, and ethical failures in a professional work environment. Jerry Mason failed to abide by the following impediments for responsible action; self-interest, ignorance, and group thinking.

Mountain Man Brewing Firm was an autonomous, relations owned brewery that produced the Mountain Man Lager, a beer recognized for its authenticity, quality and toughness. It had a distinctive rancid taste, somewhat higher than average alcohol content and was believed a forceful working man’s beer. It was rated the “Best beer in West Virginia” for 8 straight years. It was additionally rated as the “Best beer in Indiana”, “America’s championship lager”, “Best recognized local beer” and the “West Virginia beer”. Scutiny had shown that the Brewery was as recognizable brand amid working class males as Chevrolet or John Deere and this was the cornerstone of the brand’s accomplishment alongside blue collar customers. Brand frolicked a critical act in beer buying decision. Mountain Man was a legacy brew in a mature market. It relied on its past and rank as an autonomous, relations owned brewery to craft an aura of authenticity.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the federal government in 1996 to protect a person’s confidential health information (Guido, 2014). Moreover, violations to HIPAA need to addressed as the current technological developments have created new and changing threats to patient privacy, especially in the area of social media (Ratliff, 2015). As the head of an organization’s nursing department, each of the three case studies requires action. First, the scenario titled, Inside Access, describes a nurse violating HIPAA laws.

The objective of this study is to examine the importance of not sharing patient information through social media. According to the work of Adler (2011) many physicians are violating HIPAA and do not know it. Dimick (2010) writes that nurses at the Fargo, ND-based healthcare system in 2008 were using Facebook to "provide unauthorized shift change updates to their co-workers. What once would have been a conversation became an update on their personal Facebook pages. It was a convenient tool, because the nurses had "friended" each other through Facebook and thus could quickly read what each other wrote on their pages. They did not use patient names, but they did post enough specifics about patients so that the incoming nurses could prepare for their shift. The problem was that everyone else "friended" to their Facebook pages could also read the information." (p.1) The use of social media to talk about work "sharing sensitive patient or proprietary business information that same easy use and powerful reach broadcasts guarded information to large numbers of people." (Dimick, 2010, p.1) Release of information that is sensitive over social media can result in great harm to the reputation of an organization, violations of HIPAWA and ultimately result in "breach notifications and hefty fines." (Dimick, 2010, p.2) Dimick writes that Kaiser Permanente published "an organization-wide social media policy that explains appropriate staff

The medical professionals who were supposed to be caring for this dying patient failed to concentrate on his thoughtful care, and instead took a few photos of this gentleman and posted them on Facebook. Several of the staff lost their job and others disciplined for this cruel lack of integrity. In another incident in California at Tri-City Medical Center, nurses discussed patients on Facebook. While no job losses were reported, those involved were reported. Five nurses lost their employment by simply taking digital photos on their phones of a suicidal person and even snapping images of patient x-rays. Several reports have been made of nurse’s curiosity getting them in trouble by looking up records of celebrities. A contract nurse wound up seeking new employment for looking into records on patients not assigned to them at the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, seeking information on those hurt in the shooting that injured congresswoman Giffords. A nursing student examining a placenta – if in the scope of the day’s assignment and thus presumed appropriate, is one thing, but crossed a huge threshold when photographed and posted on Facebook. The consequence was large, kicked out of nursing school and a subsequent lawsuit.

In the third scenario the student nurse took a photo of the patient with his room number visible in the background and posted it on Facebook. She did not realize that others could still access the post even if there are privacy settings and ultimately was expelled from nursing school because she had breached the patient’s confidentiality. This scenario resonated with me because there was no intent to harm the patient and because it happened to a student nurse. Not to dismiss that she did something wrong, but the student nurse was probably very caught up in the emotional aspect of caring for the patient and probably thought she was doing something good by applauding the child. She was feeling proud of the patient as well as privileged to be a part of his care. As a nurse and a human being I can understand this, however as nurses we always need to be very careful of being caught up and acting out of emotion. Just as you must take the time to think things through and the repercussions of you actions when providing actual care for a patient this must be done using social media or any action that could violate the patient’s right to privacy and confidentiality. As a nurse the priority should be to protect your patient and she did not do so because she acted based on emotion and possibly did not understand or think through the full implications of her

The rapid development of technology throughout modern society has initiated the widespread use of social networking. Social networking plays a positive role in healthcare when educating, communicating, or advertising. However, poor judgments have the power to turn this positive into negative and damage professional reputations. Griffith (2014) stresses the importance of understanding that protected health information is not a matter of open secrets. Whether a lawyer, doctor, nurse, or a secretary, it is important to avoid conditions that may influence the health and security of patients or clients, as well as their own professional reputation (Aylott, 2011). The Purpose of this paper is to explore the appropriate use of cell phones and social networking in healthcare and the importance of understanding the ethical boundaries between professional uses opposed to personal use.

Over the past few years, the VA has been involved in numerous scandals encompassing malpractice, fraud, and breaches of confidentiality; the origin of all of these being a poor ethical code within the hospitals. One of the most infamous of these scandals occurred in 2014, when doctors strategically programmed the computer scheduling system to look as if appointments were being given, when in fact they were not. Several patients who were very ill died as a result of this, yet the only punishment these doctors received was a brief suspension period (McDonnell). Many breaches of patient confidentiality have also occurred recently, one of the most shocking being a doctor posting private medical information about one of her patients on her Facebook page. This happened numerous times, and even though this is considered to be a severe misdemeanor, she was only put on a two week suspension (Schow). Misconduct like this would not occur as often if hospital workers were held accountable for their actions and the ethical code of the hospital was more strictly

Many people feel uncomfortable or embarrassed when having to display their personal body parts to any individual outside of their significant other. Performing a random drug test on an employee does not only display traces of substance abuse but also other health related factors that they may not want their employer to know of. Examples of this include: maniac depression, schizophrenia, and heart trouble (DeCew, 1994) (Hanson, et al., 2015). Additionally, individuals are very concerned about the disclosure of their personal information being decimated without prior knowledge or consent. In 2007, when George Clooney went into the hospital for a minor procedure, his information was accessed by 27 different people. They were disciplined but the damage was already done. This incident shows that secure computer files are not 100% secure and that the human interest in gossip is everlasting (Goldman, 2009). In some ways, it seems as if the employee is treated as guilty party before proven

Professionalism is a very important key in the nursing profession. It is what paints a good image for a business or, in this case, an organization, people will most likely choose the professional organization over the unprofessional, because with the nurses that are professional they have great quality in customer service. Examples being, nurses that are professional aren’t rude or disruptive, they handle business in a kindly manner, following directions and policies etc. Unprofessionalism in nursing practice continues to hinder the expansion of the field. There are many things that nurses do that are highly unprofessional at the workplace. A few major unprofessional mistakes nurses tend to do is, bullying, breaking HIPPA, and behavior. To me, these are the biggest mistakes that really pop out at me.

Not only were the students embarrassed and professional reputation damaged, but the nursing program also faced a great deal of media attention. This is most certainly not the only example where the nurse/student was implicated in a seemingly innocent post. There are wide ranges of reports to the BON, such as nurses posting patient photos or information about patients on various forms of social media (Spector & Kappel, 2012). Nurses posting potentially identifying information about a patient’s health care is a QSEN safety concern. According to the NCSBN, there have been many reports to the BON of breaches in patient privacy related to the use of social media by nurses. This has charged the BON to designate the Disciplinary Resources Committee to develop guidelines for nurses regarding the use of social media (Spector, 2010).

I am writing due to comments made and lack of professionalism displayed by a teacher.

Nancy Spector, whom holds a PhD, RN titles from the University of Wisconsin, distinguishes that most patient privacy violations are due to nurses not taking the time to think before posting and inadvertently putting the patient’s info out for persons not admitted to see it. Spector states “The quick and efficient technology enabling use of social media reduces not only the time it takes to post, but also the time to consider whether the post is appropriate and what ramifications may come from posting inappropriate content.” Nurses should be able to use social media to help further their relationships with patients and co-workers, with the healthy understanding of how to do so wisely.

As stated by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA, 2014), when using social media, health practitioners should be aware that National codes of ethics and professional conduct apply. The British journal of Nursing (Farrelly, 2014) articulates that as a student nurse and future health professional, I have a responsibility to understand social media and confidentiality in the health care context. To become a successful nurse I will need to build trusting relationships with my patients, which will involve them being confident that their personal information will be protected by myself as a nurse. To achieve this it is essential that I adjust the ways I use social media and become more cautious of what I am posting online. For example, as a student and future RN, it is crucial that I do not discuss patients or post pictures, case studies or sensitive material which may enable patients to be identified. The misuse of social media may also have a negative effect on team-based patient care, for example if it is used as a tool to “cyber bully”

Gene Sim has already been placed on a Final Warning due to performance and with the exit of the Hicks it has brought up some disturbing unprofessionalism behavior and poor judgement from Gene Sim.