Discuss why nurses have a responsibility to uphold a standard of conduct consistent with the standards governing the profession of nursing at work and in their personal lives. Include discussion of how personal conduct can violate HIPAA or be considered unethical or unprofessional. Provide an example of each to support your answer.

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Nurses have a professional responsibility that extends to moral and ethical obligations permeating the profession. The responsibility is identified by standards related to morals, integrity, collaboration with other medical personnel, social change, and patient care. Nurses must be aware of these standards and uphold them since violations could result in disciplinary action by the nursing board or even the loss of license. Through posting inappropriate social media content, nurses reflect adversely on themselves and also the associated medical organization. This is particularly of concern when the content involves the patients’ rights thereby violating HIPAA provisions (Black, 2020). To be more precise, concerns are presented when the social media content includes disparaging remarks about patients, sexually suggestive images, profane and biased language, and infringements on patient confidentiality. For instance, if a patient comes into the medical facility drunk and ends up urinating on himself, then taking a picture of that patient in wet cloths and posting it on social media would be considered a violation of the required standards of conduct. HIPAA is particularly concerned with patient confidentiality with violations that identify the patient outside the strict realms of care provision being considered unprofessional and unethical. Irrespective of whether the information disclosure was intentional or unintentional, it would still be considered a breach of HIPPA regulations (Black, 2020).

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