Social Media 's Impact On Communication

Punjani, N. S., Bhanji, S. M., & Meghani, S. T. (2015). Implication of Social Media in Health Care Practice. International Journal Of Nursing Education, 7(2), 128-131 4p. doi:10.5958/0974-9357.2015.00089.6

According to Steven Waldern, director of the American Academy of Family Physicians Center for Health IT, social media has taken a toll on the healthcare industry. Patients are now interacting with patients that are going through a social media site, Patients like me. This site is used to improve the patient’s outcome, connect patients with one another, and enable research. This website has secure portals to ensure that patient information is kept personal or with only healthcare providers. (Hartford, 2012)

As technology continues to become a significant part of society, we are beginning to the see the effects, both positive and negative, that come from such advancement. One topic that is widely discussed in this context is the use of social media in our daily life. Although it seems simple in nature, social media has not only transformed our views, but also the way we see our health and use of healthcare. Whether it be the mental illness cases in social media users or the spreading of helpful information on healthcare, social media has already made a considerable effect on society in both a medical and ethical state. One of the largest positive effects that comes to mind is the ability for response from health organizations over social media.

The articles are very consistent in their viewpoints regarding the positives and negatives of using social media in the nursing profession. Social media is the future of nursing and will only continue to grow (Lachman, 2013). The process of communication is continually evolving and changing and the nursing profession needs to harness this (Ferguson). Though most of the articles have found that the positives outweigh the negatives, they do acknowledge that there are indeed a lot of negatives related to the use of social media in a professional setting such as this. Ferguson (2013),

In recent years, the utilization of social media by health care providers and hospitals has grown tremendously (Von Muhlen & Ohno-Machado 2012). A survey done among more than 4,000 physicians conducted by QuantiaMD (social media site) concluded that more than 90% of the respondents use at least one form of social media for personal purpose whereas 65% utilized social media for professional activities and the use of social media by physicians is escalating (Courtney 2013). According to Modahl and colleagues, approximately 60% of physicians prefer interactions with patients via social media, giving strong support to provide patient education, followed by monitoring patients’ health, behavior, medication compliance and providing advice to patient

When you observe a person’s line of work, social media will always be involved, regardless whether it plays a large or small part in their career. In the field of nursing, social media has always had great value. The use of blogs, online chat rooms, personalised pages, and discussion forums to communicate both professionally and personally to patients and their family members, after they have left the hospital, are just some of the different ways in which social media has been incorporated into the health system. Nurses who are consistently looking to share their experiences with other health professionals also use social media as a means of support.

Light, D. (2004) ‘Making the NHS more like Kaiser Permanente’, BMJ, 328(7442), pp. 763–765. doi: 10.1136/bmj.328.7442.763.

Most concerns about the use of social media in the workforce of health care is the compromisation of a patients privacy and online professionalism (Cheston et al., 2013). To ensure the privacy and online professionalism professional boundaries have been discussed and put in place at many work places (Hillman et al., 2015). If a healthcare worker was to post patient information they may become subject to personal liability and sued for defamation, invasion of privacy or harassment (Springer, 2012). It is essentially important to educate the nursing students on the risks of social media, Essary (2011) found that undergraduates often failed to acknowledge the consequence of their social networking behaviours on present and future professional goals, this may lead to the students struggling to separate professional and personal contents and what is appropriate for public consumption. With the wide growing uses of social media some people are still very naive about how the system works, which can cause a lot of trouble. Once something is uploaded to a social networking site it can never be fully deleted, it has a footprint, social media is not now, nor has it ever been secure (Simpson, 2014). Not only are there the above risks with social media, but also for an undergraduate student

In the recent past, the number and use of technological devices and social media platforms are increasing at exponential rates. Accordingly, the use of the social media platforms and other electronic communication methods has been applied in numerous fields and professionals from different sectors of the economy. However, the pros and cons of the blog sites, video sites, social media channels, and online chatrooms rely on the wisdoms and laws that motivate and permit it. Nurses, like any other citizen, are allowed to and so they use social media and electronic gadget. Consequently, they are prone to the benefits and risk associated with them depending on how they use them. In the United States of

Social media is an ever-growing digital, content-based communications based on the interactions enabled by a plethora of web technologies which facilitates interpersonal communication and networking more effectively. It helps people to share online text, pictures, videos and links. It is significantly useful to health care professionals, patients and public to share their knowledge, skills, preferences and ideas with others (Suby, 2013). Recent evidence shows that the use of social media increased among patients and health care providers (Antheunis, Tates, & Nieboer, 2013). Neil Seeman, Health Strategy Innovation Cell, said "I think that social media is absolutely in the spirit of the excellent care for all legislation in Ontario and similar quality legislation emerging around the world. It can be very beneficial to take the pulse of what patients are saying about what they want and need at any given moment in time" (Promise, 2011. p 7). As per the meeting of health ministers of Canada, they ought to think how they can use digital tools to give patients more autonomy over their own health ("Time,"2016). Social media contributes to positive effects on the development of health care system by strengthening professional as well as the personal relationship among health care providers, by creating public awareness about health related information and by assisting the health care professionals to maintain competency in their workplace

The ‘White Paper’ states that “social media can benefit health care in a variety of ways, including fostering professional connections, promoting timely communication with patients and family members, and educating and informing consumers and health care professionals.” (reference)

The fifteen articles that were found together by the three researchers, included many useful information regarding privacy and security measures of social media in health care. Each article has been summarized what materials were found to be useful and pertained to our topic. These included ways that health care facilities are taking advantage of the use of social media and technology and also how patients as well as physicians are reacting to the impact of this data. Also included in the following articles were how social media in health care can cause issues with privacy and security if proper guidelines and policies aren’t followed.

Numerous tools in the social media are made available for health care providers. Blogs , virtual reality , social networking platforms, wikis and media-sharing sites are emerging that enhances professional education , organizational promotion, networking, patient education, health programs and patient care .However, corresponding potential risks to both health care workers and patients when a poor-quality information has been posted and confidential photos shared , professional images are prone to damage, patient privacy could be breach, personal and professional bounderies might be violated , and sensitive legal issues get discussed by public online . Guidelines were then made by several health care facility and professional

For this project, I chose to focus on social media and its impacts on communication. As a person working towards a career in public relations, I think it is important to know and understand how impactful social media can be as it continues to grow. From public relations disasters to general marketing, social media can have major effects on a majority of jobs in this field.

Language is a property found solely in humans. It helps humans communicate feelings and ideas to those around them. Through the invention of the internet and the smartphone, a new form of communication has risen. Called microtexts, this form of communication refers to text or IM messages, and posts on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit, or other social media websites. Microtexts are limited either by the website (ex. Twitter) or by those consuming the content on these sites; if posts are too long, they might not get read. In this paper, the phrase “textual paralinguistic features” refers to capitalization, punctuation, repetition of letters, emojis/emoticons, and other features added to text that are not words with the intention of adding meaning. Let emoticons be defined as faces created by symbols found on a keyboard (ex. ;-) ) and let emojis be the small pictures typically found on mobile devices (ex.☺). The influence of social media on informal writing allows for a much more exact sentiment to be conveyed to the audience in comparison to traditional rhetorical and style devices found in formal writing. This is because the smaller chunks of writing emulate spoken language, making microtexts a more natural form of communication. Adding extra features to the text such as punctuation marks and emojis replaces emotion that may be lost in a message that is just text. Likewise, capitalization and manipulation of text can add tone to an otherwise dry message. These