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Professionalism and Social Media

Charity Eirumwavbiere

Grand Canyon University

5/14/2023
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Posts that might be deemed offensive

Social media remains a crucial aspect of contemporary life. Approximately seven out of

ten Americans use social media platforms to get information, interact with others or exchange

information. Facebook is the first, followed by other apps that include YouTube, LinkedIn,

Instagram and Twitter. Social media use by nurses has practical advantages in their personal and

professional lives, enabling discussions among coworkers about best practices and furthering

healthcare.

After going through my postings, I have discovered that a few on Facebook might be

considered inappropriate. Among these posts, including posting challenges that I faced in the

workplace. This happened when I felt overworked and posted it on my Facebook account. In

another post, I explained how psychiatric patients were difficult to manage. Despite not

providing any names or photographs, the posts were improper. Chism (2021) states that

ridiculing or damaging the employer's reputation in the medical industry is inappropriate.

Moreover, it is unacceptable and improper to discuss issues at work that could expose the

employer or to publicly express one's displeasure with the employer (Chism, 2021).

Reasons why nurses should uphold a Standard of Conduct.

The most severe social media posts unintentionally or intentionally violate patient

confidentiality and privacy. This information includes making negative remarks about patients

and exposing patients' images and information in different departments or healthcare facility's

information. As stated by Place (2021), legal issues are associated with such undesirable posts.

Some of the punishments associated with such posts include career termination, fines and jail

time for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations and loss of
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license. These penalties are applicable even when the posts were posted with the best intentions,

such as striving to get professional advice from colleagues.

Additionally, postings regarding your personal life could hurt your career. These contain

offensive content such as remarks on drug and alcohol misuse, conflicts with one's spouse, or the

use of profane language. The widely reported 2013 dismissal of an emergency department nurse

at New York-Presbyterian Hospital is an example of the risks involved with posting pictures of

your Place of employment (Wellman et al., 2020). The nurse shared a photo on Instagram of a

patient in the trauma room. Even though the tweet did not violate HIPAA rules or the hospital's

social media policy, she was fired for being insensitive.

Christian principles on Social media use

Christian virtues require that every person's privacy is respected regardless of health, age,

nationality or colour. Hao and Gao (2017) further reinforced respect for every individual's

privacy and emphasized that patients should be treated with dignity. Patients may feel their

dignity violated and their therapeutic connection with nurses harmed when their privacy is

breached. Therefore, as a professional nurse, I commit to respecting dignity.

Therefore, to avoid getting into problems, I have resolved not to accept friend requests

from my previous or current patients. Nonetheless, for the friendships that I will accept, I will

ensure that it is for business networking, directing them to a secure communication network or

adding them to a LinkedIn-style profile business networking. Such secure connections, which

only contain information related to professional nursing, can be followed by fans or friends Fans.

Healthcare workers should respect appropriate boundaries when using social media, according to

Hao & Gao (2017), who make this argument in a paper on professionalism and social media. The
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nurse must develop, discuss, and keep professional boundaries with clients online, just like in-

person contact.

References

Hao, J., & Gao, B. (2017). Advantages and disadvantages for nurses of using social

media. Journal of Primary Health Care and General Practice, 3, 2.

https://scientonline.org/open-access/advantages-and-disadvantages-for-nurses-of-using-

social-media.pdf

Place, K. R. (2021). “People are more than Just a Statistic”: Ethical, Care-based Engagement of

Marginalized Publics on Social Media. Journal of Media Ethics, 36(3), 141-153.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23736992.2021.1937175

Wellman, M. L., Stoldt, R., Tully, M., & Ekdale, B. (2020). Ethics of authenticity: Social media

influencers and the production of sponsored content. Journal of Media Ethics, 35(2), 68–

82. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23736992.2020.1736078