This semester I am taking a 'Creative Non-Fiction' course to hone in on my writing skills while going to Paramedic school is on hold. The class is very interesting. My classmates are all English majors, almost all of whom had no idea that schooling was needed to be a 'Paramedic.' When I told them that was my major at my transfer college I laughed as jaws dropped and a kid called me out on it.
"I wasn't born yesterday, 'Paramedic' isn't a major." He said. I laughed and logged onto a computer and pulled up several colleges that offer it. Quietly, he sat back down and avoided eye contact with me as I held a proud smirk on my face.
My teacher then went over the syllabus, over the instructions and over the most important detail. "You cannot fictionalize anything!" She said loudly to the class. No one said anything and the gears began to churn in my mind. My hand shot up.
"What about HIPPA?" I asked. Another kid tried to convince me that HIPPA didn't apply when your writing about it, because by the time you write about it, its over. She also tried to convince me that HIPPA doesn't apply to EMT's or Paramedics, and that I had nothing to worry about. It is too early to decide, but I think I am going to fail this class because of HIPPA laws.
I posted this because I wanted to remind my readers that while I am an EMT, I am a CNA, I do have laws that say I cannot post the true stories, so while some of this is made up, there is also some that isn't. As the notice in the sidebar states, names, dates, locations, and even diagnoses' are changed to protect the patient. Remember, we are patient advocates and our paying job is to help the patient. Our hobby is this, and we have to remember where the line is drawn.
11 comments:
Hi Dani, I've taken several fiction and non fiction writing courses and as someone who has to document and chart, you've got an advantage in the non fiction category. I've found writing PCRs helped me with it. Have fun with the class, and if your school has a literary magazine, make sure you work toward getting published. There's nothing like seeing your work on the printed page.
One other thing, it's HIPAA, not HIPPA. :) (Sorry, it's a small pet peeve.)
I hope none of them are pre-law!
Seriously, if this is about creative non-fiction, you will have to break out of your mold. Write about other aspects of your life, or other aspects of your work which don't involve patients. Or find a way to write about your work which doesn't identify patients without having to ficitonalize. (I've done it in a post or two myself.)
You have some good writing here, you can do it. Don't fail just because you took a narrow view of the subject.
I was told that HIPAA only applied to EMTs/paramedics if their station/company/county billed for services. I can't back that up on paper and think it's a good idea to abide by HIPAA no matter what, though.
Good luck with the class, you'll find your writing style in no time.
Sorry bout the typo guys, sometimes my fingers get out from under me.
I told my teacher if she expected me to write about my job then she would have to expect it to be partial fiction and that certain aspects of it would be changed. She didn't like it, but agreed due to the laws.
EMS Chick is technically correct. HIPAA is a billing regulation. It only applies if you bill Medicare electronically. However, 99+% of agencies which accept money bill Medicare electronically. It's a way to make a regulation into a law without the pesky legal process.
So if you worked for an agency which collected NO money for ANYTHING, HIPAA would not apply to you. Of course, state and federal patient confidentiality laws could still apply.
Sorry for the technical stuff, but there's a huge amount of misinformation out there about HIPAA. The bottom line is that Dani's concerns are valid, and keeping patient confidentiality is the right thing to do regardless of which laws apply.
Mack,
Your post brought up a good point and hit the nail on the head on the point I was making- agency that collect no money for anything, wouldn't those be free clinics, insurance free clinics, etc?
Also, what field are you in? Your writing is excellent with a solid backbone for debate.
EMSChick and Medic7- Thank you also for your input!
I managed to write a creative non-fiction book simply by changing names, dates and adresses around. And sometimes I turned women into men, or men into women. It's good to be the King!
Micheal,
So here is my question, does a publisher consider that fiction at that point, or do they accept it as 'creative non-fiction' with a notice that it has been changed for privacy reasons?
I really have wondered how you published folks have turned this one around. :P
Hello Dani,
My publisher did an extensive legal search before publishing Rescuing Providence. There is no catagory listed, it is neither fiction, non-fiction or anything else, officially. If somebody were to question something, the legal team is confidant there is nothing amiss.
The first chapter was about a kid who died after falling from a dorm roof at Providence College. I heard recently that the family has filed a wrongful death suit against PC, who is not cooperating with the family. I'm curious as to how this will play out, it was pretty obvious who i was writing about, i even used the same first name but no last ones.
Good luck.
Michael,
Good luck with the wrongful death suit, that seems like a complicated mess. When it comes to law suits I have a huge fear, which i think contributes to my writing without names. I make a goal that within each post I have to only keep one detail true, so that it's hard to trace to an exact patient. (Except for family members and their events, they know I am blogging and know they can't avoid it :P)
I was also going to ask you and completely spaced out, where the heck can I find a copy of your book? I picked up Peter Canning's at Barnes and Noble and have Kelly Grayson's on backorder, but your's is the one I REALLY want to read that I can't seem to find.
Thanks for asking, it's available at Amazon.com or www.paladin-press.com, or at Borders and barnes and Nobel, but only in New England.
Post a Comment