NR360 INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN HEALTHCARE
Required Uniform Assignment: We Can, but Dare We?
PURPOSE The purpose of this assignment is to investigate smartphone and social media use in healthcare and to
apply professional, ethical, and legal principles to their appropriate use in healthcare technology.
Course Outcomes This assignment enables the student to meet the following course outcomes.
• CO #4: Investigate safeguards and decision‐making support tools embedded in patient
care technologies and information systems to support a safe practice environment for
both patients and healthcare workers. (PO 4)
• CO #6: Discuss the principles of data integrity, professional ethics, and legal
requirements related to data security, regulatory requirements, confidentiality, and
client’s right to privacy. (PO 6)
• CO #8: Discuss the value of best evidence as a driving force to institute change in the
delivery of nursing care (PO 8)
DUE DATE See Course Schedule in Syllabus. The college’s Late Assignment Policy applies to this activity.
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE This assignment is worth a total of 240 points.
Requirements 1. Research, compose, and type a scholarly paper based on the scenario described below, and
choose a conclusion scenario to discuss within the body of your paper. Reflect on lessons
learned in this class about technology, privacy concerns, and legal and ethical issues and
addressed each of these concepts in the paper, reflecting on the use of smartphones and social
media in healthcare. Consider the consequences of such a scenario. Do not limit your review of
the literature to the nursing discipline only because other health professionals are using the
technology, and you may need to apply critical thinking skills to its applications in this scenario.
2. Use Microsoft Word and APA formatting. Consult your copy of the Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association, sixth edition, as well as the resources in Doc Sharing if you
have questions (e.g., margin size, font type and size (point), use of third person, etc.). Take
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advantage of the writing service SmartThinking, which is accessed by clicking on the link called
the Tutor Source, found under the Course Home area.
3. The length of the paper should be four to five pages, excluding the title page and the reference
page. Limit the references to a few key sources (minimum of three required).
4. The paper will contain an introduction that catches the attention of the reader, states the
purpose of the paper, and provides a narrative outline of what will follow (i.e., the assignment
criteria).
5. In the body of the paper, discuss the scenario in relation to HIPAA, legal, and other regulatory
requirements that apply to the scenario and the ending you chose. Demonstrate support from sources of evidence (references) included as in‐text citations.
6. Choose and identify one of the four possible endings provided for the scenario, and construct
your paper based on its implications to the scenario. Make recommendations about what should
have been done and what could be done to correct or mitigate the problems caused by the
scenario and the ending you chose. Demonstrate support from sources of evidence (references)
included as in‐text citations.
7. Present the advantages and disadvantages of using smartphones and social media in healthcare
and describe professional and ethical principles to the appropriate use of this technology, based
on facts from supporting sources of evidence, which must be included as in‐text citations.
8. The paper’s conclusion should summarize what you learned and make reflections about them to
your practice.
9. Use the “Directions and Assignment Criteria” and “Grading Rubric” below to guide your writing
and ensure that all components are complete.
10. Review the section on Academic Honesty found in the Chamberlain Course Policies. All work
must be original (in your own words). Papers will automatically be submitted to TurnItIn when
submitted to the Dropbox.
11. Submit the completed paper to the “We Can, but Dare We?” Dropbox by the end of Week 3.
Please refer to the Syllabus for due dates for this assignment. For online students, please post
questions about this assignment to the weekly Q & A Forums so that the entire class may view
the answers.
Preparing for the Assignment
BACKGROUND Healthcare is readily embracing any technology to improve patient outcomes, streamline operations,
and lower costs, but we must also consider the impact of such technology on privacy and patient care.
This technology includes the use of social media applications, such as Facebook, Instagram, MySpace,
Twitter, and LinkedIn on smartphones.
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In healthcare today, smartphones are widely used for communication, efficiency, and care. Obviously, a
variety of issues (ethical, professional, and legal) from both the personal and hospital perspectives
must be considered. SCENARIO
You are a nurse in the emergency room, working the Friday 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, and your evening has
been filled with the usual mix of drunken belligerent teens, wailing babies, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations, falls, fractures, and the routine, regular congestive heart
failure (CHF) patients. Your best friend is texting you from the concert that you had to miss tonight
because you were scheduled to work, and you respond to her between care of patients, jealous that she
is there and you are not. “What a jerk to torture me like this!” you think to yourself.
It is now 2 a.m., and the medics radio once again, notifying you of an incoming motor vehicle accident
victim, ETA of 5 minutes. You sigh and opt to use the restroom, rather than getting that much‐needed
cup of coffee, and prepare a room for your next patient. The medics roll in and begin to fill you in. The
patient is a 28‐year‐old male, a passenger on a bus that was involved in a crash, leaving the vehicle
overturned after rolling over an embankment. There were several fatalities among the bus passengers,
and “this victim has remained unconscious, though his vitals are currently” . . . and as you start to focus
on the patient, you take a second look. Can it be? It is! The lead singer, Jerod, from the band “Blue
Lizards,” who you have adored since you first heard his voice! The band had just left the concert that
you had missed last evening when the accident occurred. You quickly text your best friend . . . “Can you
believe?” and she responds with “Yeah, right. PROVE IT.” So you quickly snap a picture with your
smartphone, when alone with the patient, and send it to her. Can’t hurt, right? Celebrities are “public
property,” and that’s a part of their life, right? Just for good measure, you snap a few more pictures of
the unconscious singer in various stages of undress and then a shot of his home address, phone number,
and demographic information from his electronic health record. You sit your phone down on the
bedside table for a minute as you continue your assessment of the patient.
At 7:00 a.m., you drag your tired body home and straight to bed after a long but eventful night.
What happens next? Choose an ending to the scenario, and construct your paper based on those
reflections:
1. You are the following nurse on the day shift and discover the night nurse’s phone on the bedside
table. While trying to figure out to whom it belongs, you open the phone and see the
photographs taken the night before. Holy moly! What a find, and nobody could trace you to the
photos.
2. You receive a call from the gossip paper the Gossip Gazette, offering you $20,000 for the photos
you have taken (courtesy of your best friend). Your identity would never be revealed, and you
desperately need a new car and are behind on some bills.
3. You go on Facebook, on your day off, and talk about the night you had at work and how you
didn’t really feel as bad having to miss the concert, because you actually got to meet Jerod in
person and even “Got his number!” You then post a picture of Jerod on Facebook and
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Instagram, figuring that most of your contacts would never recognize him anyway. It’s your day
off and your personal time, so no harm, no foul, right?
4. You receive a message the next morning from a peer at work that there is a big investigation
being conducted at work due to a HIPAA violation and that it involved a celebrity who had been
admitted to the hospital. The word is that legal action is being taken against the hospital due to
some photos that were sold to the Gossip Gazette. Knowing that the photo you sent is safe with
your best friend, you reach for your smartphone, but it is nowhere to be found.
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Directions and Assignment Criteria
Assignment Criteria Points % Description
Introduction 40
points 40 17%
Catches the attention of the reader States
the purpose of the paper
Provides a narrative outline of the paper (i.e., the assignment criteria).
HIPAA, Legal, & Regulatory Discussion 40 points
40 17% Discussion the following as they apply to the use of cellphones and social media in healthcare: o
HIPAA/regulatory requirements o Other legal requirements appropriate to the
use of this technology Demonstrate support from sources of evidence
included as in‐text citations.
Scenario Ending & Recommendations
50 points
50 21%
Choose and identify one of the four possible endings provided for the scenario. Make recommendations about what should have been
done and what could be done to correct or mitigate
the problems caused by the scenario and the ending
you chose. Demonstrate support from sources of evidence
included as in‐text citations.
Advantages and Disadvantages
50 points
50 21% Discuss at least two (2) advantages and two (2) disadvantages of using smartphones and social media
in healthcare
Describe professional and ethical principles to the appropriate use of this technology
Demonstrate support from sources of evidence included as in‐text citations.
Conclusion and Reflections
30 points 30 12%
Summarize what you learned Make reflections about lessons learned to your
practice.
Scholarly Writing and APA Format
30 points
30 12%
Title page, running head, & page numbers are correct.
Use Microsoft Word and APA (6th ed.) formatting Length is 4‐5 pages (excludes title & reference pages).
At least 3 references are used, listed in APA format
References match in text citations in APA format
Spelling, grammar, & mechanics are correct.
Total 240 100%
NR360 INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN HEALTHCARE
