Professionalism and Social Media in the World of Health Care
Creating a positive social media presence can be challenging yet very rewarding as a professional in health care. Various health professionals across the globe utilize a social media presence to market, network, raise awareness, and show their audience who they are and what they do (Ventola, 2014). Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others are platforms we as health professionals can use to put our voice, image and brand out there for others to see. But watch out! How do you want your audience to view you? Click here to learn more about the potential dangers and risks of using social media as a health care professional.
Demonstrating an appropriate social media presence as a health professional requires strategy, technique and mindfulness. It can be very easy to misguide or poorly influence your audience. Moorhead et al., (2013) support that the use of social media for health care professionals have many benefits, provided that specific precautions are taken to ensure reliability of information, protection of users’ and associated professions confidentiality, privacy and policy. Thus far, this course has forced me to analyze how I portray myself online and has helped me realize that I want to do more than just ‘share’ posts on social media. Although I was rather content with my current findings when completing my social media audit, my goal is to create a cohesive professional online presence that includes parts of who I am as an individual, as well as a health professional.
As a Client Service Coordinator at Bayshore Home Health I'm held accountable for my actions and obligated to abide by the company's social media policies, privacy agreements and other contracts that protect the company and its consumers. It is also my duty to ensure that other employees are also upholding these standards and practices on social media. Whether or not someone has a personal or professional social media account they cannot under any circumstances divulge information about clients or employees at Bayshore. I believe there is a misconception among social media users that think that because their accounts are ‘private’ that their information that they're sharing can still be accessible and therefore create negative repercussions to the individual and the affiliated parties.
Check out our Social Media Do’s and Don’t's below.
The new age of technology and social media has helped health care professionals become more efficient but has put consumers and workers at a higher risk of breaching confidentiality and privacy agreements. Social media platforms along with technology has enabled health professionals to do so much more then they could before. For example, now you can record notes electronically via voice control, take images with devices of clients and so on and so fourth. However, the question becomes: how is this information being stored and who can access it? Having social media platforms goes beyond the responsibility of simply consent and confidentiality (Bennet et al.,2018). To practice good ethical standards as a health professional maintaining a social media presence, it means following policies and privacy agreements held by your professional affiliations, while minimizing input of personal beliefs that may interfere with how your audience views you and your business. It is essential to ensure that you protect the privacy of clients/patients as well as your co-workers when sharing or creating content. It is important to ask yourself, “can this post be potentially damaging to myself, clients, business or any other affiliations?”
In evaluating my presence on social media and professionalism within my role in health care I’ve come to an idea of how I want to present myself via social media. Although I’m not obligated to speak publicly in my role as a health care professional, I believe that posting on social media platforms, whether it be sharing, posting or creating content IS the new age of speaking publicly. Obligation to speak publicly would depend solely on your role as a health care professional. Health professionals may not be obligated to speak or post publicly, however, whether you chose to create a ‘professional’ online presence as a health professional or not, you are still held accountable for your content and voice on both professional and personal social media accounts. I’am not obligated to speak or post publicly in my current role, nevertheless I am still entirely responsible for my actions on my private and personal social media accounts.
I also feel that health professionals are also held accountable for what others post to them in response to shared and created content. Many health professionals are more commonly using personal client photographs, cases or information to advertise certain aspects of their businesses online. A common trend among doctors and nurses in the cosmetology field is to post before and after pictures of clients. I know that although these professionals may be obtaining consent, they are not always ensuring the security of these images over time. Denecke et al., emphasize the challenges of limited privacy on social media and ethical issues surrounding privacy and confidentiality of online users.
References
Bennet, K. G., Berlin, N. L., MacEachern, M. P., Buchman, S. R., Preminger, B. A., & Vercler, C. J. (2018). The Ethical and Professional Use of Social Media in Surgery: A Systematic Review of the Literature. [Abstract]. The Ethical and Professional Use of Social Media in Surgery: A Systematic Review of the Literature., 142(3), P 388e-398e. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000004692.
Denecke, K., Bamidis,P., Bond,C.,Gabarron, E., Househ, M.,Lau, A.Y.S.,Mayer,M.A., Merolli, M., Hansen. M., (2015) Ethical Issues of Social Media Usage in Health Care. Yearbook of Medical Informatics. 10(1): 140. Retrieved May 12 2019 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4587037/
Moorhead, S. A., Hazlett, D. E., Harrison, L., Carroll, J. K., Irwin, A., & Hoving, C. (2013). A new dimension of health care: systematic review of the uses, benefits, and limitations of social media for health communication. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(4), e85. doi:10.2196/jmir.1933
Ventola C. L. (2014). Social media and health care professionals: benefits, risks, and best practices. P & T : a peer-reviewed journal for formulary management, 39(7), 491–520
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