Using Electronic and Social Media: The Regulatory Perspective

Guidelines for Using Electronic and Social Media: The Regulatory Perspective

I started to work on my paper. I don’t know if structure and over all is good enough. If it is not , you may start all over1. Provide a one paragraph critique of the article. Included in this paragraph is the main theme of the article and your opinion. 2. A second paragraph is your interpretation on how this relates to an experience in the clinical setting or project on how this will relate to you as a registered nurse.3. The critique must be written professionally and follow the APA format.4. Please include your reference.5. This paper should be one page in length.

 

 

MY DRAFT

The growing number of the inappropriate use of social media and HIPPA violation has become an alarming concern for health care organizations. Apparently, the negative side of the use of social media has its lucrative way to lure nurses to share their vivid moments that involve life and death situations or to vent off their inner negative feelings about their patients, their boss or the work. A published journal by AANA (N. Spector and D. Kappel, 2012) presents three actual scenarios of which nurses unintentionally violated the appropriate use of social media, therefore, they reprimanded for their breaches of patient confidentiality.

 

A Michigan hospital nurse posted a tweet that she was assigned to care for evil and she hoped that her patient; the cop-killer; will rot in hell. She didn’t identify her patient by name or referred to the hospital by name either; however, she received a phone call from the Hospital management that they became aware of her post and they were highly disturbed by her unprofessional action. She thought that she will be in corrective action at most. A Few days later, she was fired for ruining the hospital reputation. “Two nurses in Wisconsin posted and discussed on one of the nurse’s Facebook pages a photograph of an x-ray image showing a sexual device lodged in a patient’s rectum”. ( Header and Brown, AANA, August 2010). The FBI investigated for possible federal violations. The nurses were terminated for violating company policy and the State Board of Nursing was notified. Another case scenario where a nurse, in her public blog, called her physically challenged client as “my little handicapper”. Some readers disliked the use of her unprofessional language and reported her.

 

Apparently, these are perfect examples of how our judgment fails us at times. These nurses may have sincerely believed that they have no intent to cause harm in some scenarios, while they were actively violating the HIPAA law. The use of unprofessional language or even failure to report a questionable HIPPA violation can cost job termination, disciplinary action by State Board of Nursing, ,and even criminal investigations and sanctions. Nurses must become aware that breach of confidentiality online is a FEDERAL OFFENSE. The cyber place violations are not within the local or the State jurisdiction, consequently, the FBI will knock on their door instead.

 

Meanwhile, as a smart individual, they should figure out by now that the Facebook and other social media are not the right places to vent their frustration or brag out their job. Furthermore, social media is not a large community as people might think; people add friends, co-worker, and people with the same interest to follow them. It’s not by far a larger place to hide. People can put two and two together to figure out who they are and where they work. As a professional nurse, stop and think before you tweet; for your sake and for the sake of the patient who trusted you with his/her life. Think of your professional dignity that comes with the profession of caring for people. If this doesn’t work for you, then think of your colleagues, your patient, and your boss as potential readers.  Yes, hospital managers are looking over everyone’s shoulders now and having close eye on what might put their reputation and money at risk. Guess what!! Courts are taking sides with employers and I don’t blame them, do you?

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *