Written assignmentHealth information security

HIM 615 Topic 6 Interview Summary

You are asked to interview someone at a facility where you would consider working. That framing is deliberate, and it should change the questions you prepare.

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 25, 2026

Written by

Maren Caldwell

MSN, RN, CNE

Medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology and NCLEX preparation

Reviewed by

Dr. Tessa Redmond

DNP, RN, CNE

Evidence-based practice and clinical education

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Interpret the task
Assignment instructions
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Proposed outline
Research plan
Reference shortlist
Final review

A facility you would consider working at changes the questions

The brief does not say interview any security officer; it says identify a facility where you would consider working in health care informatics and interview someone there responsible for IT security. That is a professional contact as much as an assignment, and the questions worth preparing are ones a practitioner would find worth answering rather than ones a textbook has already answered. Asking what HIPAA requires wastes the meeting; asking how the organisation decides what counts as a reportable breach, or who has authority to stop a go-live over an unresolved security finding, produces answers that exist nowhere else and shows you have done the reading. Preparation is also what makes the meeting worth the practitioner's time, which matters if you would genuinely like to work there. Spend the preparation on the organisation rather than on the regulation, since one of those you can look up afterwards and the other you cannot.

Prepare from the exchange vocabulary the brief points you at, because that is where the interesting questions live. Health information exchange forces decisions the security officer has to make in practice: how a patient is matched across organisations and what happens when matching fails; whether patient consent is opt-in or opt-out here and how that is recorded; how access by an outside clinician is audited; and what happens to data received from a partner that turns out to be wrong. The impending regulation section the brief requires is then best asked as what is changing for you next year, since a serving officer will name something concrete and current. Write the summary around their answers rather than around your questions, and where an answer surprised you, say so and say why. Noting where you were surprised is the difference between a transcript and an assignment.

Likely learning objectives

Prepare questions that only a practitioner can answer.
Use exchange concepts to generate operational questions.
Ask about impending regulation in terms of what changes locally.
Structure a summary around the answers rather than the questions.

Assignment instructions

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Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

Details: In this assignment, you are required to identify a health care facility where you would consider working in the field of health care informatics. Identify and interview someone who is responsible for IT security (e.g., compliance, privacy, risk, or quality). To assist in formulating salient questions, view the terms (see assigned readings related to “Health Information Exchange.”) From the discussions and insights from the discussion forum, include the questions that were pertinent to the information gathered from your interview. Focus on EHRs and software solutions. Write a 500-750-word summary of your interview. The summary should focus on EHRs, software solutions, and IT security. Include the following: Background information of the interviewee (e.g., role, title, and their professional involvement with privacy, security, patient data, and EHR hardware). HIM 615 Topic 6 Interview Summary IT security Impending government regulations APA format is not required, but solid academic writing is expected. This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment. You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center. Only Word documents can be submitted to Turnitin.

Course-wide instructions that accompany this question

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

What the interview summary requires

01Identification of a health care facility where you would consider working in health care informatics.
02An interview with someone responsible for IT security, such as compliance, privacy, risk or quality.
03The questions that were pertinent to the information gathered, informed by the health information exchange readings.
04A 500-750 word summary focused on EHRs, software solutions and IT security.
05Background information on the interviewee including role, title and involvement with privacy, security, patient data and EHR hardware.
06Coverage of IT security and impending government regulations.