As a nursing instructor, I look at FERPA the same way as HIPAA, both requiring me to use due diligence to protect our students and client's privacy from those who could take advantage of such private information. As educators, it is very important that we are more mindful when we discuss a student's situation that requires us to maintain privacy and not in the present of other students. It would be the same if we as nurses discuss a client's status at the nurses' station where there is always the possibility that someone else could overhear the conversation.
