Social Media Guideline for Health Workers: My Patient And I: To Post Or Not To Post

These days some pertinent questions you have to ask yourself before you do anything online are:

1. Do I Post This Or Not?

2. Am i doing this for the retweets and the likes or not?

3. Is there any positive facts coming out of this?

Lets take a look a few years back:

In the year 2015 a Surgeon posted pictures of patient’s internal organs on Facebook. The patient 45-year-old Mohammad Faizal who was then already tormented by a tumour in his heart which was fortunately removed was put in a rather uncomfortable situation by his very own surgeon though later on the doctor later apologised and removed the pictures from the social media forum.

But by uploading the images, the doctor had grossly violated the privacy of his patient although he abstained from giving out his name. It was trauma for Faizal as some poked “fun” while commenting on the images.

Lets look at some other cases:

1. In 2008 a Swedish nurse was suspended from her job after posting on her Facebook profile pictures of a brain surgery in which she was participating (Salter 2008).

2. The US Johnson County Community College decided to expel four nursing students for posting on Face-book pictures of themselves posing with a human placenta (Gibson 2011).

3. A Mexican anaesthesiologist was fired from a hospital in 2012 for publishing on her Facebook account pictures that depicted a child being immobilized prior to an operation, the amputated legs of an elderly woman, and various surgery pictures where the patients’ faces were visible (Vivas 2012).

Breaching of medical privacy can lead to serious legal and other problems.

Its a fact that social media has evolved over the past decade, and now plays an active role in daily life. This phenomenon has changed the way we engage and interact with each other; it has changed how we both share and receive news. With constant posting across different social media channels— Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, LinkedIn — this behavior has truly become a part of us, and something that the majority of the time we don’t think twice about.

However in the nursing industry, posting profession-related material could have some serious repercussions. Something that might seem insignificant to you, may in fact be violating multiple laws and privacy ethics.  It’s important to understand social media ethics in nursing.  A simple post to Facebook congratulating patient John Doe that you’ve been working with for months on his recent progress? Big no-no.

Here’s a few things to avoid:

Do not discuss or refer to patients in any way. We’re not just talking about revealing their name. Anything from information about their diagnosis, condition, room number or, believe it or not, a NICKNAME, technically breaches confidentiality. Not only do these things violate patient confidentiality, they are likely violating facility standards.

Sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes your co-workers annoy you.  It’s a natural reaction to vent about this, but keep it off social media. Your comments can and likely WILL be seen by someone who knows someone, who knows another someone, who passes something on to that wrong someone else.

Don’t post pictures of your patients on social media. In fact, be wary of taking photos of patients altogether. Unless a patient is specifically requesting it, it’s best to avoid the situation entirely.

Keep in mind that what you’re posting effects a number of parties, including the patients, the facility, coworkers, as well as you and your career. Certainly by this point most of you have at least heard of the Nurse who is said to have circulated a picture of then hospitalised and now late MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai on social media. The image which was supposedly taken at Johannesburg’s Wits Gordon Hospital where Tsvangirai was hospitalised shows the MDC-T leader lying seemingly lifeless as a nurse appears to pose for the camera.

Outraged Zimbabweans who saw the picture wrote to the South African Nursing Council (SANC) demanding action and in a complaint to the SANC one S. Masawi, a registered nurse, demanded that the nurse be charged with misconduct. In her letter the Nurse wrote:

“May l bring to your attention the attached image showing one of your Nurses posing for a picture with a patient who is clearly on his final days. The patient is a well know Zimbabwean politician Mr Morgan Tsvangirai who passed away today (Wednesday) 14 Feb 2018 at the well-known hospital in Africa WDGMC (Wits Gordon, South African Hospital),” Masawi said.

“I am a fellow registered nurse myself and, sadly, l find the actions of your staff member, a fellow professional colleague to be grossly inappropriate, unprofessional and in breach of the Nursing profession’s code of conduct. l would like to assume a breach in the local hospital policies as well.”

Masawi added that, it had become public knowledge that Tsvangirai was battling colon cancer in the past two years and his situation had taken a turn for the worst in the past few weeks, adding that action against the nurse is required ‘against such images for personal gratification and to uphold his right to personal dignity’.

“l would be grateful if you could investigate this case of unprofessionalism and perhaps we can all learn from this. I would not want to assume such behaviours are acceptable under the SA Nursing council. The image is likely to go viral on social media over the coming few days so perhaps an earlier response may be called for.

“SA Nursing Council is well respected for its excellence in standards of training and conduct and so producing some of the best nurses and healthcare practitioners out there.”

In her defence the Nurse who took the picture said that she had gotten approval from Morgan Tsvangirai after she had asked to take a picture with him. But it seemed the outcry against her might have taken a toil on her as barely two days later news broke on various social media pages that the Nurse had taken her own life.

It might be true that the late Morgan Tsvangirai had acceded to her request of taking a photograph with his Nurse, It might also be true that she did not ask but still took the picture. We might never know for a fact since it seems both are dead.

The point is, in an industry overflowing with private information and personal records, we have to be extra careful about what we’re posting, and who can see. There can be serious consequences from suspensions to termination of employment.

Nurses you have to think carefully about what you’re posting before you do so!

Anthony Ijeoma