If a nurse has a family member sleeping with someone who is HIV positive should she chance violation of HIPA .

by informing about the condition/ How would you handle this?

thanks for the ppositive comments but for those who are judging me becareful because you do not know what you are talking about.

I am a nurse of nearly 20 years and recently have had to deal with a similar situation. It is a really tough position to be in. In our profession we develop gut instincts and that is what saves lives. Don't get me wrong. I believe in HIPPA and believe it should be followed. In my situation it involved the safety of a child and was able to get away with a solution as a mandatory reporter without revealing the "other" information I was privy too. This deals with a different set of circumstances. "HIV" continues to be controversial. I agree the family member has a right to know. The nurse can always approach the family member and suggest she get testing and state under law she is unable to say anything more. That should get some very good conversations going to between the HIV person and the family member on the subject! Then they can tell them. Nothing was revealed and warning high risk individuals of the dangers of HIV is absolutely within the boundaries of the scope of nursing.

HIPPA is suppose to help people from information getting into the wrong hands. We deal with sensitive information every day. Sometimes it seems to cloud the line between doing what is right from experience and knowledge and violating something meant to protect patients by people without the knowledge and experience.

Good luck.

That is a tough one - legally you aren't supposed to, but think about it this way...you could possibly be saving someone's life by letting them know. And I honestly think that someone's life is much more important than someone else's privacy...especially if they know they are HIV positive and are still sleeping with someone without informing them of that fact...some people would call that attempted murder...

Unless you want to lose your job and have a $10,000 fine, don't do it. It is a fine line between advising your family member be aware that they can get diseases from people and how do they know their partner is disease free and violating the HIPPA laws. Hopefully, you can advise her to always use protection - ALWAYS - because you know she is sexually active with this person and let her find out on her own.

HIPAA protects the rights of confidentiality for patients in the healthcare field. I work in a group home for children with developmental disabilities, if I were to read one of the childrens charts and tell anyone what I learned from that chart, I would be violating HIPAA, and possibly lose my job and pay a hefty fine. Here is a link to HIPAA provided by the Government if you would like to check it out. HIPAA laws are very extensive.

did you find out about this from work? or by some other means..im assuming work..and what everyone else is saying it true..i would advise my family member to get an HIV test as well as her/his partner.

No. Private lives vs. work are totally different and I am sure that this nurse knows how to protect herself.

HIPAA is more geared towards the privacy act of patient criteria.

There are many nurses out there who entered the world of nursing/ caregiving ect due to someone they knew that was ill to begin with. (HIV or other) That just makes them a better nurse! More importantly it helps a person gain knowledge vs fiction and thus ends up putting more focus on what truely matters.

Having been a patient myself due to a life long infection of HCV, your statement hits me odd. Are there underlying reasons as to why you wish or at least 'think' to push the issue? I would hope not. It would ruin many lives, not just one.

What her family member does is HER or HIS business, not her business and certainly not HIPAA's.

I think maybe you ought to re-read HIPAA. Somewhere I think your wires have been crossed.

It sounds like you work in the healthcare industry because surely you would not be thinking about breaking someone's privacy under the grounds of "word of mouth". If you do work in the healthcare industry and are familiar with HIPPA and you are for sure that this person has it, then you have the background of the hospital industry to at least go to your family member and say: "You know, there have been so many people lately coming in here with these STDs, I know your not married, so it would make me feel better if you got tested for everything and wore protection, no matter what" I think this would leave the avenue open for her to suspect nothing, you are pointing nobody out, but she would simply think you, being in the healthcare idustry, would be just looking out for her.