Social media present an important part of the daily life of modern people. However, the use of open personal profiles in social media can jeopardize the professional competence of workers in public services. The use of social media is now even monitored by organizations in hiring to avoid potential negative consequences for their image. Analyzing examples of nurses’ social media use can draw valuable insights into the importance of nurses’ responsibility and adherence to ethical and fair standards.
Firstly, the primary example of nurses’ inappropriate use of social media is the violation of patients’ confidentiality. According to EveryNurse (2018), all types of information shared about patients, such as patient records or room numbers, can be perceived as a breach of confidentiality. My use of social media mainly focuses on communication with the people I know from my personal life; therefore, I never engaged in social media activities that can violate patients’ confidentiality. However, I have seen several accounts where nurses shared joint pictures with patients. While the context of such posts demonstrated a positive relationship between nurses and patients, they still compromised patients’ privacy. Furthermore, I saw several negative posts on Twitter where nurses shared their frustration about colleagues. The Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements from the American Nurses Association (ANA) requires nurses to show respect “to all individuals with whom the nurse interacts” (2015, p.4). Thus, violating colleagues’ confidentiality in social media space can present an example of unethical conduct.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) focuses on protecting patients’ confidential information from disclosure. However, according to Edge (2017), the coverage of HIPAA law in nursing school is minimal and does not provide detailed guidance on features of professional use of social media. Thus, the insufficient coverage of the important topic in nursing education exposes student nurses to the risks of improper use of social media.
Furthermore, nurses’ professional activity is more dependent on their compliance with the standards governing the nursing profession in their personal lives because it can affect the quality of patient care. Thus, personal conduct as evidence of a nurse’s unprofessional behavior on social media can affect the perception of patient care in the patient’s family. For example, evidence of a nurse’s alcohol consumption featured in social media can reduce the patient’s family’s trust in the nurse’s services and professionalism, resulting in lower quality of provided patient care. Moreover, nurses can post excerpts from their communication with patients on social media while keeping the patients’ identities anonymous to prove an important point in professional discussion. However, if part of the featured information can be used to identify the patient, the nurse’s conduct can be perceived as unethical professional behavior and a violation of the patient’s right to privacy.
In conclusion, I formed two important conclusions based on the analysis of my social media and knowledge acquired from reading materials. Firstly, I determined that my reluctance to share information about my professional activities is partly based on the Christian value of respect for others and the fear of unintentionally offending someone. However, I also acknowledged that by rejecting the opportunity to use my social media for professional purposes, I am missing the chance to contribute to improvements in the population’s health. Nurses can successfully use social media for the promotion of the population’s wellbeing by increasing the public’s awareness of important health topics. Therefore, I can improve my activity on social media by reposting important health information for my existing followers and being open to answering their questions on health topics.
References
American Nurses Association (ANA). (2015). Code of ethics for nurse with interpretive statements. Web.
Edge, W. (2017). Nursing professionalism: Impact of social media use among nursing students. Journal of Healthcare Communications, 2(3), 1-3. Web.
EveryNurse. (2018). How nurses should be using social media. Web.
