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L1000: SCPL Confidentiality

  • Effective Date: August 2026
  • Date Reviewed: No date entered.
  • Next Review Date: No date entered.

Subject

Confidentiality

Scope

Faculty and SCPL Staff; Students of the Undergraduate Department/Graduate Department; Other Participants

Responsible Office

Simulation Council

Responsible Executive

Dean, Cizik School of Nursing

Policy and General Statement

All Cizik School of Nursing (CSON) students, CSON faculty, SCPL staff, and other participants at UTHealth Houston Cizik School of Nursing (CSON) at the Simulation and Clinical Performance Lab (SCPL) must maintain the privacy and confidentiality of all simulation activities at all times.

Definitions

A. Confidentiality entails the protection of all private information and events that occur during simulation activities to preserve the integrity of the simulation experience.

B. Fiction Contract an agreement between the facilitators and learners where learners are asked to ‘put aside their disbelief and accept the simulated scenario as being real for the duration of the scenario’ (Sharma et al., 2023, p. 767).

C. Simulation Activity is the entire actions and events from beginning to the end of an individual simulation event, in the learning setting. Begins with a pre-brief and ends with the debrief (Lioce et at, 2024).

D. Other participants are defined as follows:

  1. UTHealth Houston Faculty/Facilitators (non-CSON)
  2. UTHealth Houston Learners/Observers (non-CSON)
  3. External Faculty/Facilitators (non-UTHealth Houston)
  4. External Learners/Observers (non-UTHealth Houston)
  5. Visitors

Procedure

A. Confidentiality Agreement and the Fiction Contract

  1. Before participating in any SCPL simulation activity, CSON students will be required to acknowledge the SCPL Confidentiality Agreement and the Fiction Contract (See Appendix A) outlined in the UTHealth Houston Cizik School of Nursing Student Handbook and sign the student handbook.
  2. Faculty/facilitators are expected to uphold the confidentiality of simulation activities involving students under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for HOOP Policy 129 – Educational Records (UTHealth, 2022a) and under other professional regulatory bodies of professional practice.

B. Prebriefing

  1. Before any simulation activity, it is expected that the faculty/facilitator will emphasize that the simulation will be a safe learning environment per the SCPL Psychological Safety - Students Policy L1001 and that the privacy and confidentiality of the simulation is to be maintained by all participants about individual learner performance and the simulation scenario itself.
  2. The faculty/facilitator will reiterate the establishment of the confidentiality agreement and the fiction contract that was signed by students before participating in the simulation.

C. Academic Dishonesty and Unprofessionalism

  1. Any undergraduate student who violates confidentiality due to unacceptable student conduct as outlined under HOOP Policy 186 Student Conduct and Discipline, Appendix A (UTHealth Houston, 2022b), policy S1020 Academic Honesty (Cizik School of Nursing, 2018), and policy U4400 Professional Behavior (Cizik School of Nursing, 2022) will be subject to discipline by the Lead faculty/facilitator of the simulation activity.
  2. Any graduate student who violates confidentiality due to unacceptable student conduct as outlined under HOOP Policy 186, policy S1020 Academic Honesty (Cizik School of Nursing, 2018) and policy G5010 Professional Conduct (Cizik School of Nursing, 2020) will be subject to discipline by the Lead faculty/facilitator of the simulation activity.
  3. For any confidentiality violations by students, the lead faculty/facilitator will email the Assistant Dean for Simulation about the incident.
  4. There will be documentation of the breach of confidentiality, and storage of these documents will be in the SCPL I drive: SCPL Confidentiality folder (Appendix B).
  5. The consequence of another breach of confidentiality for students will be determined per the discretion of the lead faculty and their course syllabus.

D. Breach of Confidentiality – Faculty, SCPL Staff, and Other Participants

  1. Any faculty, SCPL staff, facilitator, or visitor who violates confidentiality will be subject to discipline by their respective department or facility.
  2. Any violations of confidentiality will need to be reported via email to the Assistant Dean for Simulation about the incident.
  3. The consequence of another breach of confidentiality by faculty, SCPL staff, or facilitator will be determined per the discretion of their respective department or facility.
  4. There will be documentation of the breach of confidentiality, and storage of these documents will be in the SCPL I drive: SCPL Confidentiality folder.
  5. The consequence of another breach of confidentiality by a visitor will be the termination of visitations in the SCPL.

Contacts

Lead Faculty dependent on simulation lab/course

Chair of Undergraduate Department

Chair of Graduate Department

Assistant Dean for the Undergraduate Department

Assistant Dean for the Graduate Department

Assistant Dean for Simulation

Exhibits

Cizik School of Nursing. (2018). S1020 Academic Honesty. 

Cizik School of Nursing. (2020). G5010 Professional Conduct.


Cizik School of Nursing. (2022). U4400 Professional Behavior.


Cizik School of Nursing. (TBD). SCPL Psychological Safety - Students. Link TBD.


Lioce L., Lopreiato J., Anderson M., Deutsch, E.S., Downing D., Robertson J.M., Diaz D.A., and Spain A.E., and the Terminology and Concepts Working Group (2024), Healthcare Simulation Dictionary, (3rd ed.). https://www.ahrq.gov/patient-safety/resources/simulation/terms.html.

Sharma, H. Patil, A.D., & Baviskar, A. (2023). Fiction contract: Its importance in simulation-based medication education. International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology, 12(5), 766 – 770. Doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20232579


UTHealth Houston. (2022a). HOOP Policy: 129 – Educational Records. https://www.uth.edu/hoop/policy.htm?id=1448106


UTHealth Houston. (2022b). HOOP Policy: 186 – Student Conduct and Discipline. https://www.uth.edu/hoop/policy.htm?id=1448220 


UTHealth Houston. (2025). SCPL Psychological Safety Students.