When people think of the words social media, their first thoughts are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other social networking cites, but social media is much more than that. “Social media is a generalized term for a group of online software tools that allow for increased interaction, authorship and development of online content by any web user. Social media, which includes tools such as wikis, blogs, podcasting, social networking and social bookmarking, represents a shift from the Internet as an information warehouse, with passive consumers, to a place that promotes and facilitates active participation on a variety of levels”(Kuhns, 2012). On many social media sites information can be shared in a variety of different ways such as: text, photos,
…show more content…
Nurses who post on social media about recent care of any patient are misusing these venues and violating the Code of Ethics (ANA, 2001), even if they believe the patient could not be identified. Even if the patient never is identified, "subjecting patients to unnecessary risks is wrong even if no damage is done" (Vaughn, 2010, p. 10). If the patient is identified, the risk of embarrassment and other emotional pain is very real. As an additional drawback of social media, anything saved to a server is "there forever and could be retrieved later, even after deletion" (NCSBN, 2011a, p. 8)” (Henderson & Dahnke 2015). Nurses are privileged to interact with each of their patients. Over the time of their hospital stay relationships can be built between nurses and patients. To avoid wrong practice never add patients as a contact to your personal social media accounts. Even after a patient is not within your care, it is best to avoid any type of relationship other than professional with …show more content…
With that being said, it is easy to log on to social media sites to simply express about how you enjoyed taking care of one of your particular patients. The nurse may not submit the patients name or illness but can express enough information that violates the patient’s privacy. This is probably one of the most common ways nurses break the patient confidentiality agreement. This also is why I strongly believe that it important to be careful of what you post regarding to what happens with your patients, good or bad. “While it pays to be cautious in use of social media, nurses and midwives should not be afraid to embrace it as a means of talking about nursing and midwifery issues, as well as union issues. You should ‘like’, ‘share’, and ‘retweet’ articles and information you find interesting, and you think your friends and colleagues may find interesting too. Remember to exercise the usual caution around offensive and discriminatory material” (Queensland Nurse,
Nurses who post on social media about recent care of any patient are misusing these venues and violating the Code of Ethics (ANA, 2001), even if they believe the patient could not be identified. Even if the patient never is identified, "subjecting patients to unnecessary risks is wrong even if no damage is done" (Vaughn, 2010, p. 10). If the patient is identified, the risk of embarrassment and other emotional pain is very real. As an additional drawback of social media, anything saved to a server is "there forever and could be retrieved later, even after deletion" (NCSBN, 2011a, p. 8)” (Henderson & Dahnke 2015). Nurses are privileged to interact with each of their patients. Over the time of their hospital stay relationships can be built between nurses and patients. To avoid wrong practice never add patients as a contact to your personal social media accounts. Even after a patient is not within your care, it is best to avoid any type of relationship other than professional with …show more content…
With that being said, it is easy to log on to social media sites to simply express about how you enjoyed taking care of one of your particular patients. The nurse may not submit the patients name or illness but can express enough information that violates the patient’s privacy. This is probably one of the most common ways nurses break the patient confidentiality agreement. This also is why I strongly believe that it important to be careful of what you post regarding to what happens with your patients, good or bad. “While it pays to be cautious in use of social media, nurses and midwives should not be afraid to embrace it as a means of talking about nursing and midwifery issues, as well as union issues. You should ‘like’, ‘share’, and ‘retweet’ articles and information you find interesting, and you think your friends and colleagues may find interesting too. Remember to exercise the usual caution around offensive and discriminatory material” (Queensland Nurse,