Medical Students Breaching Patient Privancy

Med Students Breaching Patient Privacy

According to an online Time Health magazine article, a medical school survey suggests that students are exposing confidential medical information, as well as making lewd and unprofessional comments through online social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter (Park, 2009). While it is an understanding that medical students are probably very aware of the ramifications of breaking the confidentiality with patients, they might feel the urge to speak freely through the websites, blogs and social media outlets without regard to the patients privacy. Ethical responsibility is the focus of the issue, and students should understand that the same privacy laws apply to them as with doctors and other healthcare administrators.

The Argument

The question that might arise is whether students are breaking the privacy of patients. This argument is thwarted by a survey conducted, which interviewed 80 deans in the medical schools. The study found there was a 60% indication of reported incidents among those questioned about unprofessional postings on websites, and a 13% population of deans admitting occurrences dealing with the privacy of patients. Expulsion was the result of some of the offenses indicated. (Park, 2009).

Medical students, as with the rest of society, are subject to posting childish, lewd comments and pictures on the web. Students, as with anyone else in society, often think of their stories and opinions of others as private, and not infringing upon anyone else's business. In my experience, Facebook postings have been used as my personal diary, but publically available to friends and family members. There were times when I was carried away in my statements, and realized that I was breaching upon the privacy of friends or people I knew without realizing it. The web gives us a window to the freedom of speech, but what students should realize is that ethics and common sense should always be used when telling stories or posting pictures and information about others.

One might assume that a medical student would be more intelligent than posting private information online that is not supposed to be divulged, but that is not the case, and likely, due to confusion about what they can and cannot post when it comes to the Internet. There is likely a vague misunderstanding of what is considered personal information forwarded by the student, and the policies that limit them from talking about what happens at work (Park, 2009).

The study indicates that the younger the student, the more confused they were about what information was considered personal and professional information. Older staff members was found to not be as complacent when it came to believing their own opinions, regardless of the possible damage that it might have caused to others or themselves. More importantly, when it comes to students talking about cases they experience, they are often unaware that the identifying patient information is not limited to just names, but also characteristics involved in each case. The divulgence of that information can violate existent privacy laws. It is assumed that the experience gathered from students is a great informational tool to share with others, but there