Comments on: How a nursing student got expelled for blogging

By: Safe Blogging Practices: It’s Not WHAT You Say… - Better Health

Safe Blogging Practices: It’s Not WHAT You Say… - Better Health — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:02:05 +0000

[...] haven’t heard the story, check out What Can Nursing Students Blog About? at Code Blog, with an update at Kevin, [...]

By: It’s Not WHAT You Say… // Emergiblog

It’s Not WHAT You Say… // Emergiblog — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:21:45 +0000

[...] heard the story, check out What Can Nursing Students Blog About? at Code Blog, with an update at Kevin, [...]

By: DMAC

DMAC — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:59:56 +0000

Dr. Kevin,
I’m finding this article timely and upsetting. Where has the human compassion and medical professionalism of some practitioners gone?? Just two days ago I was Googling for information on intubation, and was linked to some disturbing videos on UTube, the worst one being a naked woman spread out and uncovered, and filmed while unconscious. Judging from the comments below it, and the number of hits it received, I know I am not the only one who found this upsetting. It certainly doesn’t make me feel any better about my already huge concerns about general anesthesia. I also recalled some comment on a TV blip, where the actors were talking about “Code Pink: Naked unconscious female,” as though this was some standing joke in the profession. How are people, especially women, supposed to feel with this kind of prevalent mentality? It’s unacceptable for medical personnel to be so disrespectful of patients. Doesn’t do anything to enhance the image of the field, for sure.

By: Oculata

Oculata — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:53:33 +0000

Apparently, these young whippersnappers don’t remember the saga of Flea, whose blogging cost him a malpractice verdict, and a public outing on the front page of the Boston Globe (above the fold!).

Blogging also landed me on the front page of a newspaper, and while it didn’t get me dismissed from my training program, it was a sufficiently painful experience that I set aside the blog for good.

In the post-Google era, it’s very easy to identify people from minimal details, and so the bar for maintaining patient privacy is now far higher than just having your charts in a locked cabinet. Long story short: it’s not worth the potential hit to your career or reputation to blog about your clinical experiences in real time. If you want to write about patients, do it like Jerome Groopman or Atul Gawande do: in retrospect, with your patient’s permission, and to make a point. “Writing” short blog posts or one-line Facebook status updates about patients is all risk, no benefit. Writing long, meaningful essays or stories about poignient encounters with patients, in an informed and transparent manner is all benefit, little risk.

By: Gina

Gina — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:29:14 +0000

Actually it was a guest post on codeblog.

By: justapatient

justapatient — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:07:49 +0000

It’s curious how a student nurse was allowed to videotape the birth. There was nothing in her blog or in the court transcripts that said the patient gave permission.

And her description (page 2) “I jump up and turn my camera on again, assuming the position of a greyhound, right in between (the patient’s legs)”…. so the doctor had no problem with this person in training knocking elbows with him as he’s trying to do his job? And anyone wonder what her plans were for the this video, and what became of the tape?

If indeed it is legal for a hospital worker to bring in their own personal camera equipment and film an intimate procedure without explicit patient consent, then this case truly showcases the arrogance of entitlement in the medical profession.

By: Michael Rack, MD

Michael Rack, MD — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:57:52 +0000

This is the line in the original blog post that immediately follows “…waving its tentacles in the air”:
“15 minutes later it turned into a cute pink itty bitty little baby girl”
Kind of changes the whole tone, doesn’t it?
Here is Yoder’s original blog post:
http://www.pageonekentucky.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/yoder1.pdf

Here is my blog post about the Yoder incident:
http://rebeldoctor.blogspot.com/2009/10/blogging-nursing-student-expelled.html

By: Linkage analysis « University and State

Linkage analysis « University and State — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:07:03 +0000

[...] would say more, but I don’t want to be expelled. Though I have one less reason to be expelled now, as I don’t have to get the flu [...]

By: Nancy Jean

Nancy Jean — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:50:28 +0000

Thanks for posting this. First, I’m amazed that a nursing student would be so horrified by a birth. Second, I’m equally amazed that someone in a profession that usually has such compassion would be so callous as to post something like that in a blog. We had something similar happen in a blog by a rad tech who may not have violated patient confidentiality, but came very close by blogging some info that could ALMOST be considered as identifiable information. But the worst part was the way the people were described. If any of the patients had read this blog and realized they were the subject of ridicule by someone who was there to provide care for them, they would be hurt and embarrassed. In the world of blogging, I would think that anyone in healthcare should be expected to show the same respect to the patients they write about as they would offer in person when providing care. Just my two cents.

By: jsmith

jsmith — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:17:52 +0000

Well said, Don’t Approve. Being a doctor or a nurse means giving up our regular-persons rights to broadcast disgust at others’ minds or bodies. We should keep our non-therapeutic thoughts private. We are healers in a noble profession, not comedians.