A nurse that I work with took a picture of her holding an infant she was taking care of and posted it on Facebook with the comment "Sometimes I really love my job" Is this a HIPPA violation since there were no name mentioned or personal information?

No, No medical information or diagnosis was revealed. However, it would be a breach of ethics to do so without the parent's permission and could get her in trouble at the hospita..

Actually, yes, this IS a HIPAA violation. No pictures of patients may be taken by the medical staff without express written permission of that patient.

A nurse I work with recently lost her job for EXACTLY the same thing.

HIPAA or hospital policy? I can certainly see firing a nurse for doing so. But I'm surprised it comes under HIPAA.

Yes, it does come under HIPAA as we are not to disclose the names, medical treatment or images (photographs fall under the image category as well as x-rays for example).

By taking a photo of a person you are disclosing that they are a patient at that facility.

Here is an article...

May I take pictures of a patient? - Office of HIPAA Privacy & Security - Miller School of Medicine - University of Miami (http://www.med.miami.edu/hipaa/public/x420.xml)