Week 6 Flashcards
BCCNM Social Media Standard
If you use social media, professionally or personally, consider:
Benefits and risks
Professional image
Confidentiality
Privacy
Boundaries
Expectations
Integrity
Employer policies
Accountability
If you use social media, professionally or personally, consider:
Benefits and risks - Build your competence. Know the technology and have the skills and judgment to use it appropriately and ethically. Be aware of social media’s evolving culture and changing technology. Reflect on the intent and possible consequences of your online behavior — before you blog, post, like, commentor tweet.
Professional image - Use the same level of professionalism in your online interactions as you do face-to-face. Keep your personal and professional lives separate. Use different accounts for personal and professional activities.
Confidentiality - Do not share any client information on social media sites. Leaving out details when you post information or images does not protect client confidentiality. Report confidentiality breaches to the right person, immediately.
Privacy - Set and maintain your privacy settings to limit access to your personal information. Be aware of your privacy settings and know that even if you use the highest privacy settings, others can copy and share your information without your knowledge or permission.
Boundaries - Set and maintain appropriate professional boundaries. Just as with face-to-face relationships, this applies online too. Communicate these boundaries to clients and end your professional relationships appropriately. Don’t accept “friend” requests from clients or former clients on your personal social media accounts. If you use social media with clients for work purposes, such as client teaching and resource-sharing, use a professional account separate from your personal one. Be clear about how your use of social media supports professional practice and make sure organizational policies addressing privacy and confidentiality are in place.
Expectations - Use caution if you identify yourself as a nurse online, outside of your employment. If you do so, others may ask for advice, which could lead to a nurse-client relationship. Using a name that hides your realidentity does not release you from this expectation. Know this and practice accordingly.
Integrity - Protect yours and the profession’s integrity. Use proper communication channels to discuss, report and resolve workplace issues — not social media. Refer to colleagues or clients online with the same level of respect as you would in the workplace. Before you blog, tweet or share information about your practice, reflect on your intentions and the possible consequences. Even if you don’t post yourself, consider the impact of “liking” someone else’s disrespectful comments.
Employer policies - Know and follow employer policies on using social media, photography, computers and mobile devices, including personal, at work. If you need to communicate with clients via social media, use a professional account and work with your employer to develop policies.
Accountability - Make sure you can answer for your actions. Reflect on why, how and when you use social media and help others do the same. Know that personal use of social media while working can create client risks through distraction and interruptions; and in some situations, could be viewed as client abandonment. If you are uncomfortablediscussing your online behaviour with others, consider this a red flag. Use professional judgment to keep your obligations to clients, colleagues and employers front and center.
Complaints to BCCNM about nurses’ use of social media and technology relate to Nursing Professionalism:
Professional Boundaries
Privacy & Confidentiality
Professional Integrity
Public trust
Canadian Nurses Protective Society and Social Media
Understanding legal and ethical considerations involved in using social media prevents personal and professional consequences:
Confidentiality, Professional Conduct and Image
Provision of Care
Nursing Advocacy
Risk and Consideration for example:
Scope of distribution
Permanence of information
Risk Management
Confidentiality, Professional Conduct and Image
Confidentiality, professional Image and conduct:
Professional practice standards regarding confidentiality, therapeutic boundaries and professional image are engaged when nurses use social media in connection with their professional activities or in a manner that may affect their professional reputation.
Provision of care
Nurses are often called upon by friends and family (and occasionally, their clients) to provide informal advice about a new condition or follow-up care. Social media and messaging applications facilitate the exchange of photographs and information that could form the basis of the request for a professional opinion. There are many reasons to avoid the use of social media to provide professional advice.
Advocacy by Nurses through Social Media:
Posting or sharing concerns for various aspects of the health care system on social media could give rise to legal complications in the event it breaches patient confidentiality or is considered by employers or the nursing regulator to be contrary to the best interests of the public, nurses, or brings harm to the standing of the nursing profession. When considering posting publicly, it would also be prudent for a nurse to first consider whether there are other appropriate channels (such as those listed above) to raise their concerns which have been established by their employer and/or institution.
Considerations:
Scope of distribution.Because information shared over the internet is quickly and widely distributed, archived and downloaded, the person posting the information may ultimately have very little control over who sees it and its use.
Permanence of information
A social media post is generally permanent.This can result in a dangerous situation as the original account holder no longer has control over the content that was shared.
Misapprehension of the extent of privacy controls
Although social media sites may have privacy controls, be aware that the default settings for many social media platforms permit others, including members of the public, to view your posted information. Information shared on social media may be disclosed and used in court if found relevant to the issues in a proceeding.
Crossing Boundaries
Nurses who engage with their patients through social media may run the risk of crossing professional boundaries.
Pseudonyms
Posting anonymously or under a pseudonym does not protect against the possible consequences of a breach of confidentiality or defamation. Once a civil claim has been commenced, the disclosure of individual IP addresses and subscriber information may identify individuals.
Reputational damage
Posts that a nurse may believe have been archived or deleted may resurface on a professional level to their detriment. Many employers are now reviewing social networking profiles of current and prospective employees and may identify misconduct, inappropriate behavior or behavior that may adversely affect a nurse’s professional integrity.
Risk Management
What are some practices you can adopt to ensure social media is used professionally? (avoid posting all together, ensure passwords are authentic, always present yourself in a professional manner, be cognizant of employer and college policies on social media use)
Nursing Advocacy –
Scope of distribution – don’t know where it goes, once it is one social media it is always there, it can be permanent, always there,
Miss apprehension of personal – keep in mid someone can always see
Crossing boundaries
pseudomins- post things privately that they think they can’t be found
Reputation – if you post something it can be detriment
Canadian Nurses Protective Society
Can renew a membership with them, don’t regulate, but provide legalities, they are a third party, can give legal advise, lots of great guidelines, easy reads
Benefits and risks
- Build your competence. Know the technology and have the skills and judgment to use it appropriately and ethically. Be aware of social media’s evolving culture and changing technology. Reflect on the intent and possible consequences of your online behavior — before you blog, post, like, commentor tweet.
Professional image -
Use the same level of professionalism in your online interactions as you do face-to-face. Keep your personal and professional lives separate. Use different accounts for personal and professional activities.
Confidentiality -
Do not share any client information on social media sites. Leaving out details when you post information or images does not protect client confidentiality. Report confidentiality breaches to the right person, immediately.
Privacy -
Set and maintain your privacy settings to limit access to your personal information. Be aware of your privacy settings and know that even if you use the highest privacy settings, others can copy and share your information without your knowledge or permission.
