I need help regrading an ethics opinion piece!

Hi, I am sure many of you has read the thread about a nursing students expelled from school because she posted a picture of her with a patient`s placenta and uploaded it on facebook. Our ethics prof has required us to write a short paper on it. The topic is if you think the measures taken in this case were appropriate? Why or why not? I have been trying to come up with a legitmate argument all day. Since I am not supposed to discuss any idea from the legal prescriptive, all I could think of is that the nurse did not get any informed consent when she took the picture, and therefore has violated the patient`s right to privacy(from a normative ethics prospective). I am starting to think my argument is seriously flawed considering the placenta is an unidentified organ. So right now I am clueless and need some ideas as to how to approach this from the consent and privacy issue. Thanks!
the topic is if YOU think the measures taken in this case were appropraite. Good luck on YOUR paper!

They probably booted her for being creepy. Who photo ops a placenta?

I think the measures taken were not appropriate, and that as long as the organ was not identified as "Mrs. X's" placenta, there was no violation of HIPPA or patient privacy. Once the organ is not living, it is now tissue that is on its way to become medical waste. This is an ethics piece. The point is there is no right or wrong answer, but they want to see your point of view and ability to see things from both sides of the coin.

Nurses are to protect their patient's dignity.

I think the measures taken by the school were not appropriate because they did not follow ethical considerations in their relationships with the nursing students. The administrator, the school code, and the instructor did not provide the nursing students with the appropriate guidance for the development of nursing competence. The administrator abused her position of power over the students by not providing them with a fair hearing before dismissal.See Considerations in Relationships with Nursing Students, Canadian Nursing Code of Ethics http://www.cna-aiic.ca/CNA/documents...ics_2008_e.pdfregardsdishes

Perhaps talk about the sheer creepiness of it? This is akin to holding up a used bed pan and snapping a pic...gross.

Quote from toughtimes RNNurses are to protect their patient's dignity.

I'm not seeing this an any kind of HIPAA violation, or even a violation of privacy as much as a very immature and unprofessional thing to do. This is something a teenager would do for kicks. This student doesn't look like good nurse material from where I sit.

Quote from toughtimes RNNurses are to protect their patient's dignity.

Disclaimer: I am neither a nurse, nor a nursing student. It is conceivable, perhaps, that some day I may get to the second status; the first is a great unknown.But I have found that my natural reserve--to be quietly efficient and industrious, in the background--has served me well. As if my first principle were, Attract no attention, except by demonstrated excellence.Otoh (for the instant concern), hardly anyone in my generation would be likely to "understand" the appeal of Facebook, Twitter, and all that.Professional program schools, or employers, looking for any, ah, indiscretions, posted on various on-line "social networking" sites? If the appeal, if any, for such things doesn't exist, it seems likely nothing will be found--because, nothing notable exists.

Quote from eriksolnI would give a very concrete and not so helpful "yes and no" when asked if I agreed with the measures taken. I don't strongly disagree with them, but at the same time, would say making the student sit out a semester to consider whether she wanted to continue nursing and to reconsider how she will act if she does......that would have been plenty. I like the above quote because, in my eyes, thats the line she crossed. Right here, right now, I will tell you the one thing I wish I had been told in nursing school. If you use your employer's policies and procedures and/or the law (be if federal or state) as your moral guide through nursing, you will be nothing more than a warm body as a nurse. You will never reach the heights of nursing performance our patients need from us. Very often, we must go beyond what is required of us by the policy and law makers in order to deliver the level of care that nursing expects from itself. If I were to list even a few of the examples in which I've had to be better than "the min. requirement", this post would be tens of pages long.This student's behavior showed a tendency that was not becoming of " a great nurse". Think back to when you had to take the entry exam for your nursing program (if your school has one). That test looks for a capacity to think in the abstract world, to know and understand what has not necessarily been directly taught. This is a term renamed "critical thinking" by us nurses. You take that test to earn your seat in the program because, if you score higher than your peers, you have displayed the ability to do what is necessary to become a nurse (and to pass the NCLEX, which is the school's priority). Now, during clinicals, this girl took someone else's organ and used it for an opportunity for self promotion. Technically, no laws were violated and no school policies were left without respect. Is that where the moral compass of a nurse ends though? Not to me. The student failed epically in putting the pt. first. Although no direct harm came from this incident, the student displayed a tendency that the school found unbecoming. That tendency was to put her own self promotion ahead of the pt's needs/rights to privacy. If the action had gone unnoticed, I do not doubt other, more borderline incidents would have occurred and the potential for harm to a pt would have multiplied. One of the few/first teaching videos I've ever watched that were actually informative was a HIPAA video. The video showed how seemingly harmless violations created harm for the pt. involved. They were real life examples, sometimes with the actual patient involved being interviewed afterwards. In one, a co-worker of the pt. called just to "Say hello and see if Mr. Smith is doing alright." Well, the nurse answered that the pt was doing much better. Sure enough it got back to the owner of the pt's company and they decided Mr. Smith was "milking" his injuries for time off. When he was D/C'd, he had no job to go back to. Had to spend much time in court to keep his retirement even. The student showed a tendency to put privacy at risk, and in the name of self promotion to boot. No, the punishment was not too severe although I believe a simple suspension would have gotten the message across. If the school had not acted, and her career was stained with victims like the one I mentioned above, we all would be on here ranting "Schools don't teach this sort of thing.........she is a victim............the lines are too blurred, how do we know what is allowed and what is not?" Well, now we know. Kudos to the school for being willing to weather the harsh criticism that came after their decision and insisting on the lesson being learned.

If nursing students taking a picture of a placenta after being granted permission by their nursing instructor is unprofessional response on the students part, how is the administrator expelling the students without a hearing a professional response? Two wrongs don't make a right. dishes