Question

Nurse Pınar, who has just started work, has been sharing on her Facebook page detailed information about patients diagnosed with rare diseases admitted to the wards at her place of work, without using names or pictures. Did she do it right or not?

Answer 1

In the healthcare line of work and especially as physician and nurse often do come across cases which are rare and worth sharing. But this sharing in principle should be in order to add to knowledge and professional growth but when nurse Pinar used a social networking platform it indicates and leans more towards gossip and unprofessional behaviour. In medical profession, maintaing the trust of the patient in the treatment and the caregivers is of critical importance. The patient share their discomfort in confidence to the caregivers and as per the doctor patient confidentiality code ans ethics of the healthcare providers it is pertinent that the information be kept private and shared only in requirement for treatment purposes. In this case, even if the name was changed still it was unethical and grossly unprofessional by the nurse to share patient care details and case history on a public platform like social media. Hence what nurse did was indeed wrong and no healthcare personnel should reveal any professional confidential information in public and maintain sanctity and trust of the profession.