{"id":652,"date":"2026-06-10T10:49:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T14:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/xnursing\/?post_type=docs&#038;p=652"},"modified":"2026-06-16T09:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:27:59","slug":"client-patient-confidentiality","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/docs\/handbook\/clinical-policies\/client-patient-confidentiality\/","title":{"rendered":"Client\/Patient Confidentiality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Confidentiality is the protection of the patient&#8217;s privacy in all written and oral communication and is covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In addition, the American Nurses Association <a href=\"https:\/\/codeofethics.ana.org\/provision-3\">Code of Ethics for Nurses (Provision 3)<\/a> requires that nurses abide by the laws related to patient confidentiality. Consistent with ethical practice, it is imperative nursing students maintain the highest level of confidentiality regarding patient records and circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>Important information regarding the patient must be communicated to the designated faculty or staff member in a timely manner. All patient records must be kept confidential, accurate, legible, secure and free from unauthorized access.<\/p>\n<p>Discussion of a patient&#8217;s condition or personal affairs is confidential and will only be held in the presence of the patient and\/or those persons to whom the patient has given permission and the staff involved in the patient\u2019s care.<\/p>\n<p>Students shall not:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Take or post on social media any pictures or videos of patients, self, students, staff or of any areas of the facility.<\/li>\n<li>Give information concerning patients or internal hospital information to newspaper reporters, lawyers, photographers, their families, law enforcement or others not connected with the health care agency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All students shall:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Refer any person seeking information to the affiliate agency staff.<\/li>\n<li>Comply with current HIPAA regulations. Students who violate HIPAA regulations will be subject to disciplinary action by the affiliate agency, the nursing program, the federal government or all.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>GCC complies with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/registrar\/ferpa\/\">Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)<\/a> regulations, which protects students\u2019 information. This means that faculty and the program do not give out information about the student without their permission.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":699,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"_is_vendor_doc":"0","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-652","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry"],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/652\/revisions\/653"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/699"}],"next":[{"title":"Clinical Assignment Preparation","link":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/docs\/handbook\/clinical-policies\/clinical-assignment-preparation\/","href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/654"}],"prev":[{"title":"Centralized Clinical Placement (CCP)","link":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/docs\/handbook\/clinical-policies\/centralized-clinical-placement\/","href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}