The ethics of blogging patient interactions

It’s no secret that nursing blogs and the detailing of patient conditions and clinical experiences are on the rise. A quick Google of “nursing blog” returns a plethora of sites where nurses are eager to share crazy patient scenarios, stories of annoying or ignorant interns, and a myriad of personal gripes pertaining to the understaffed, overstressed environment in which we all work. And let’s face it, for the most part we like to read and wallow in the negative experiences of our colleagues citing “coping and venting” reasons as an excuse for eagerly consuming all this crap. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading about clinical experiences and I believe blogs are the best way we can learn from each other.

So this brings me to a recent thought. We all know that it is our duty to uphold confidentiality and the right to privacy for our patients. Does blogging about experiences violate this basic human right? I’d like to hear some of your thoughts.

In the mean time, here is what the Canadian Nurses Association has to say about Confidentiality.

Nurses safeguard information learned in the context of a professional relationship and ensure it is shared outside the health care team only with a person’s informed consent, or as may be legally required, or where the failure to disclose would cause significant harm.

Nurses must protect the confidentiality of all information gained in the context of the professional relationship, and practice within relevant laws governing privacy and confidentiality of personal health information.

A link to the document on the Canadian Nurses Association website can be found here.