Library between classes!

I find this a fun thing to do in between my classes, and when I'm feeling overwhelmed with school this is one great thing to do to keep my goal in focus, looking through the critical care nursing section of the library at UCF!

Research Proposal

This is my research proposal for my recent question generation document, referring to the flexibility of the HIPPA law. This describes my brainstorming, what sparks my interst about HIPPA, my troubles I had with this project, how I plan to overcome my problems, as well as what research I found that I could use for my final draft.

Research Proposal

            The HIPPA law is very relevant in today’s society; it affects every person in this nation every day.  There has been much debate on this issue, and I have come to learn in my research that there are many parties interested in the HIPPA law. Something that sparked my interest, and was the key reason to my research was the strictness of the HIPPA law, and how it can affect society in a negative way as well as positive.

            When I first began my research and brainstorming, my question was not specific as it should have been, it was too simple. My original research question was, should the HIPPA law be more flexible? I found some great answers in my research for debates but the question really was too simple, it was a yes or no question. So with Professor Vives pointing out the simplistic nature of my question, I brainstormed new questions, but still sticking to my original topic of the HIPPA law, and its flexibility. The new question that I have formulated is, how does the HIPPA law affect society negatively, and positively.

            This question is worth investigating because it effects everyone in society, all the medical records you have ever had, is affected by the HIPPA law. Also there are a lot of negative aspects to the HIPPA law that people fail to think about until it affects them personally. I believe it’s important for people to understand the positive aspects of HIPPA that protect you, but also the negative aspects of HIPPA that can harm society. I personally believe this issue hasn’t been resolved because it can be an ethical issue of personal protection, and society protection. Not enough people have been affected personally for the law to be debated enough and changed.

            I hope to gain more knowledge of this law, and how it has affected people around me. I want to know what people around me have to say about this law, the nurses, doctors, and those affected negatively. I hope that I can make others see the positive, as well as negative aspects of the HIPPA law, and how it could affect them.

            Through my research I have learned that others besides me are interested in this topic. I have seen journals on the topic in my library research from scholars. I also came across an article where the measles sent three people to the hospital, and the doctors refused to tell the community the names of the patients; along with this article was a blog of nurses debating on whether the information should have been disclosed or not.

            Some sources that I have come across are, Banking on privacy: Hospitals must protect patient information -- and their own liability -as banks balk at HIPPA, HIPAA humdrum: Generally speaking, laws work better if they're enforced,  Promoting health literacy in patients with diabetes,  Using Campinha-Bacote's process of cultural competence model to examine the relationship between health literacy and cultural competence,  HIPAA—The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act What RNs Need to Know About Privacy Rules and Protected Electronic Health Information,  HIPAA and its impact on pharmacy practice, Measles case raises the issue of privacy versus the public good (article), and Measles Cases Raise HIPAA Debate (popular source). The article on measles was accompanied with the nurse’s blog debating on the flexibility on HIPPA. 

Works Cited

 

·         Fuoco, Michael. “Measles case raises the issue of privacy versus the public good”. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2 April 2009. Web.

·         Jolie. Measles Cases Raise HIPAA Debate. AllNurses.com, 3 April 2009. Web.

·         Haugh, R. "Banking On Privacy. Hospitals Must Protect Patient Information -- And Their Own Liability -- As Banks Balk At HIPPA." H&HN: Hospitals & Health Networks 78.2 (2004): 50. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.

·         Friedman, Emily. "HIPAA Humdrum: Generally Speaking, Laws Work Better If They're Enforced." Modern Healthcare 41.35 (2011): 26. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.

·         Stiles, Ella. "Promoting Health Literacy In Patients With Diabetes." Nursing Standard 26.8 (2011): 35-40. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.

·         Ingram, Racquel, Richardson. "Using Campinha-Bacote's Process Of Cultural Competence Model To Examine The Relationship Between Health Literacy And Cultural Competence." Journal Of Advanced Nursing 68.3 (2012): 695-704. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.

·         "HIPAA -- The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act: What Rns Need To Know About Privacy Rules And Protected Electronic Health Information." National Nurse 107.6 (2011): 20-27. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 14 Sept. 2012.

·         Giacalone, RP, and GG Cacciatore. "HIPPA And Its Impact On Pharmacy Practice." American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy 60.5 (2003): 433-445. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 14 Sept. 2012.

           

Data Gathering

In class we had to do a data gathering exercise to help us better our research papers. I learned a lot with the UCF library, and their databases made it easy. The following "essay" is my response to the exercise.


 

Data Gathering Exercise

            To gather my data I first went to the UCF library website and clicked on articles and databases, I then clicked on the topic “nursing”. After clicking nursing I chose “CINAHL Plus with full text”. I then put in multiple search terms, HIPPA, health laws, health privacy laws, nursing literacy, and health literacy. I narrowed the search to only results with full-texts, and then went through the texts and read some of the abstracts, and saved the ones I thought could be a good reference for my writing.

            When I put in some of the key terms not all of them were useful to my data gathering. Surprisingly, health laws were not as useful as I thought, there were a lot of topics on abortion, smoking, but I did not see any privacy laws. So I looked for something more specific, health privacy laws.

            I actually read an article where the relationship between health literacy and cultural competence was measured which was interesting. I saw multiple journals that I never knew were involved with the healthcare environment, like business, and literacy.

            I was very shocked when I couldn’t find more issues concerning the specific HIPPA law. I read articles about violating the HIPPA law but not so much the downfalls of the law. Even though the HIPPA law was a bit of a struggle, I was surprised the amount of results came up for nursing literacy, I was expecting that topic to be very difficult to find.

            The database I used for this exercise was “CINAHL Plus with full text”. Some of the journal articles I came across were -   Banking on privacy. Hospitals must protect patient information -- and their own liability -as banks balk at HIPPA, -         HIPAA humdrum: Generally speaking, laws work better if they're enforced, -Promoting health literacy in patients with diabetes, and -           Using Campinha-Bacote's process of cultural competence model to examine the relationship between health literacy and cultural competence.

            For my submitted article I chose “HIPAA—The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act What RNs Need to Know About Privacy Rules and Protected Electronic Health Information”. I learned the different forms of violations of HIPPA, and I also learned the different penalties for each circumstance. This article relates to my issue because it is about the HIPPA law, it helped me to further understand the law and violations of the law.

            Primary sources I could use could be nurses, and maybe court cases on the HIPPA law, also nursing journals.

            If I analyzed these primary documents, I would expect to find some sort of debate amongst medical staff, or maybe a document that proves a point that the HIPPA law is somewhat immoral to society.

            The primary source I found was an academic journal. I learned what kind of effect in had concerning pharmacy; I learned that HIPPA wasn’t just present in hospitals, and clinics, but pharmacies as well. It was interesting to learn about the effect HIPPA has on so many people.

            I think an important thing for me to do is to revise my research question to make it more specific instead on just the bland, yes or no. Also I could try to find more ways to bring up literacy amongst nurses. 

 

Works Cited

·        * Haugh, R. "Banking On Privacy. Hospitals Must Protect Patient Information -- And Their Own Liability -- As Banks Balk At HIPPA." H&HN: Hospitals & Health Networks 78.2 (2004): 50. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.

·       *  Friedman, Emily. "HIPAA Humdrum: Generally Speaking, Laws Work Better If They're Enforced." Modern Healthcare 41.35 (2011): 26. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.

·       *  Stiles, Ella. "Promoting Health Literacy In Patients With Diabetes." Nursing Standard 26.8 (2011): 35-40. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.

·       *  Ingram, Racquel, Richardson. "Using Campinha-Bacote's Process Of Cultural Competence Model To Examine The Relationship Between Health Literacy And Cultural Competence." Journal Of Advanced Nursing 68.3 (2012): 695-704. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 13 Sept. 2012.

·      *   "HIPAA -- The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act: What Rns Need To Know About Privacy Rules And Protected Electronic Health Information." National Nurse 107.6 (2011): 20-27. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 14 Sept. 2012.

·        * Giacalone, RP, and GG Cacciatore. "HIPPA And Its Impact On Pharmacy Practice." American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy 60.5 (2003): 433-445. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 14 Sept. 2012.

Research Rough Draft & Revision

In class we wrote our first "essay". We were able to choose our own topic, I am very interested in the medical field, so I chose the HIPPA law. The HIPPA law is a law that protects medical documents, and medical information. I wrote my rough draft and had a peer review my work in class. The following responses are ways I felt I could better my paper.


1) Do you need more specific examples?
             -  I felt I gave adequate examples in my paper that described my issue and was right to the point.
2) Do you need to revise with your reader in mind? (better explain things)
             - My peer who reviewed my paper was unsure of my question, so I tried to make my question      
               more visible to the reader.
3) Do you need to reorganize your points?
            - I actually did reorganize a couple of my paragraphs so my beginning paragraphs would flow
               better.
4) Do you need to take the filler out?
            - Honestly, I don't believe I used a filler, if I did it was not intentional.
5)  Do your main ideas need to be clearer? When in doubt, tell the reader your main idea as soon as possible, then, discuss how you get there.
             - I just believe I needed to make my main question more clear.
6) Should you rephrase your research question to take the complexity of the situation into account?
             - No, I believe I had a good, complex research topic, with many scenarios to expand on.
7) Do you need a new research issue?
             - No, my research question is extremely relevant to the medical world, and society.