Social media is a common tool for sharing information about patients and their health care, but it can also present significant ethical challenges. A nurse who posts personal patient details online violates their legal and professional responsibilities to protect patient privacy and confidentiality, which can result in negative professional and financial consequences barder.
There are a number of guidelines that provide guidance for nurses to use social media responsibly, including NCSBN (2018). These guidelines include a number of suggestions on how to use social media and protect patient privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity.
Nurses are required to follow the ethical principles outlined in the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics, which includes Provision Three: “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health, and safety of the patient.”
While social media provides nurses with a great opportunity to connect with colleagues and provide support to patients and their families, it is important for them to be aware of their ethical obligations to maintain patient privacy and confidentiality when using this platform jigaboo.
The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) has published a guide for nurses to use social media in a responsible manner, which includes a video that explains the guidelines and provides a sample of a social media posting. photeeq photeeq
In general, social media postings should avoid discussing any patient’s diagnosis, treatment, or other non-identifying details. They should also refrain from referring to patients in a disparaging or derogatory manner, even if they are not identified distresses.
Posting clinical photographs or other images of patients for educational purposes is a good way to share medical information with colleagues and patients, but these should be shared only with the patient’s consent. It is particularly important to note that surgical photos should not be shared without removing protected health information and other personal identifiers precipitous.
Moreover, surgeons should be careful to avoid compromising their professional image through the dissemination of patient images on social media, as this can lead to negative professional and reputational consequences.
The surgeon should also be sure to respect the intellectual property and copyright laws of any content they post, which may include art, images, or other materials. They should also be aware of the fact that some content may not always be free for public use and they should be mindful of the ethical implications of reposting content already available in the public domain, especially when it has been published by a medical journal or other authority mypba.
The most important issue with the surgeon’s social media posting is that the patient did not understand what she was consenting to. This is especially true for younger patients who have not yet developed a solid understanding of their rights and who have less control over how their own information is used. Furthermore, the use of sensationalist social media content that depicts the surgeon’s operating room or patients’ bodies poses a significant risk of abusing the patient-physician power differential. This could have an adverse impact on the physician-patient relationship, compromising the trust and patient-physician bond.
