Question

what are some ethical issues nurses face using social media?

Answer 1

The use of social media in the health care setting raises a number of professionalism issuesincluding concerns related to privacy andconfidentiality; professional boundaries; recruitment; the integrity, accountability, andtrustworthiness of health care professionals; and the line between professional and personal.

Social media abuse not only impacts the nurse who posted the content, but also the people or institution they posted about. For example, negative comments may adversely impact care team cohesion as well as result in punitive action against the nurse, according to the NCSBN.In fact, the ubiquitous use of social media has created a number of potential ethical and legal challenges, some of which we will cover in this article. Specifically, we will:

1. Define social media;
2. highlight some recent instances of the good, bad, and ugly—social media used for good purposes, bad purposes, and plain ugly purposes;
3. outline salient professional and ethical issues;
4. review some illustrative case examples; and
5. highlight where to find recent policy recommendations.

In many ways, social media is a liberating tool for millions of people throughout the world. The challenge for health care professionals is how to use social media in a responsible and thoughtful way. In this essay, we hope to foster a more reflective dialogue on both the benefits and potential risks of using social media in the health care context, particularly through a series of case vignettes.The use of social media in the health care setting raises a number of professionalism issues including concerns related to privacy and confidentiality; professional boundaries; recruitment; the integrity, accountability, and trustworthiness of health care professionals; and the line between professional and personal identity. Below we discuss the first issue, which is foundational to the others.

Privacy and confidentiality are often used interchangeably but they have some crucial differences. Privacy is typically focused on the person—how and when an individual may share of him or herself. This is patient-controlled. Confidentiality, on the other hand, is focused on information that has been shared with someone else in a relationship of trust. This is controlled by the physician (or other health care professional).

Maintaining privacy and confidentiality are integral to the patient-health care professional relationship, since preserving patient trust is essential for competent clinical care. Without some commitment to confidentiality, many patients would be disinclined to share intimate information about themselves or their health histories, which could compromise the delivery of health care. With the advent of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) enacted in 2003, health care entities were legally allowed to disclose protected health information (PHI) only to facilitate “treatment, payment, and health care operations”.

In the remaining part of this essay, we consider several case studies (some taken from the news and some hypothetical) that highlight the more salient ethical and legal issues that arise with the proliferation of social media use in health care.

Social media has saturated every industry, and nursing is no exception. For nurses, social media allows them to connect their personal and professional lives, facilitating conversations with colleagues about health care advances, current best practices, and more. Many students going through nursing programs or already established as nurses may want to share what they have experienced or learned. Yet, social media use can also lead to unexpected consequences, with any shared professional information at risk of being reported and scrutinized. As long as nurses follow the guidelines outlined below , they can avoid unpleasant professional consequences and stay clear of risks related to disclosure of protected information.
Nurses using social media need to follow a set of guidelines, outlined below, to avoid unpleasant consequences.Nurses can positively use social media to share challenging or emotional experiences, but it is critical that they not mention any identifying patient or location information to avoid negative consequences.

First and foremost, according to the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics, “Nurses should evaluate all their postings with the understanding that a patient, colleague, educational institution, or employer could potentially view those postings. Online content and behavior have the potential to either enhance or undermine not only the individual nurse’s career but also the nursing profession.”

To help gain a better understanding of the difference between acceptable and unacceptable use, some of the ways nurses utilize social media are outlined below.Popular platforms for nurses include blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and professional forums,Blogging. Many nurses of all specialties blog as a form of sharing industry insights and daily life as a nurse. For example, there are currently nursing blogs about correctional nursing, the evolving health care environment, health care technologies, nursing school tips, travel nursing, and international nursing advice, among others.Nurses may want to share feelings of support or a bit of their daily lives on social media. That’s fine, as long as there is no patient information and it remains on a professional level. Sharing health information of patients — regardless of whether it’s in a good or bad light — is a breach of confidentiality and privacy, as it publishes private information that patients may not want shared or publicly acknowledged.