SRNA violated P.A. nurse's grandparents' privacy: Privacy Commissioner report

The Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association (SRNA) has gotten its hand slapped for doing almost the same thing it took a member to task for in February.

Carolyn Strom is a nurse from Prince Albert who was brought before a disciplinary committee in February for professional misconduct. She had written a critical post on Facebook about her grandparents’ treatment in a long-term care facility.

Specifically, the accusations in the notice of hearing said that in writing the post on Facebook she failed to follow proper channels, impacted the reputation of facility and staff, failed to first obtain all the facts, used her status as a registered nurse for personal purposes, and she also violated the confidentiality of her grandparents.

In a report at the end of August, the Information and Privacy Commissioner found the SRNA turned around and violated Strom’s grandparents’ privacy itself.

The association copied parts of Strom’s Facebook post into her notice of hearing and posted it to its website without taking out the identifying and personal information, which the privacy commissioner said was a violation of the Health Information Protection Act.

The notice of hearing was posted in December. The problem regarding the information was brought up during the hearing in February and, by the end of it, the notice of hearing had been posted again with relevant portions redacted.

Strom’s case has been heard but has not been concluded.