Social Networking Disadvantages

We all have been asked to either stop using a social network or to join a specific social network; like Facebook. We have these two authors; Alan Norton and Dan Fletcher, they give their reasons why we shouldn’t use social networks and why they don’t use them in their essays. Which are, respectively, “10 Reasons Why I Avoid Social Networking Services” and “How Facebook is Redefining Privacy.” In my opinion, it should be up to the reader what they decide to do on social network services. One should have the intelligence to know what is appropriate to post online and what you want others to know about one’s life. Today’s younger generation is consistently using social media and must be taught Internet etiquette. It is up to everyone what they wish to do with him or her time, privacy, and digital footprint.

Communication has been permanently changed by social media. A wide conceptual definition of social media, as cited in Ressler & Glazer (2010), is “The online and mobile accessible services that enable individuals to connect, collaborate, and share with others in real time.” Social media has an obvious influence on informal communication style and represents both possibility and liability for healthcare institutions. As cited in Bernhardt, Alber, & Gold (2014), “Social media provide healthcare professionals with tools to share information, to debate health care policy and practice issues, to promote health behaviors, to engage with the public, and to educate and interact with patients, caregivers, students, and colleagues.” It also presents challenges, including risks to information accuracy, organizational reputation, and individual privacy. Social media can be a very helpful in communicating among nurses and other healthcare providers while creating professional connections, and sharing experiences, but guidelines for appropriate use by healthcare providers are essential. Whether or not certain healthcare organization decides to use social media as a communications tool - social media policy still need to be implemented. Policies help establish an organization 's rules and expectations around social media.

In the world today, smartphones are becoming the “norm”, with basic phones becoming nearly obsolete in recent years. Pairing the overwhelming presence of social media with the rise in usage of smartphones brings to light an entirely new set of problems and challenges regarding patient privacy. According to a 2010 study conducted regarding various boards of nursing, 67% of executive officers surveyed reported receiving complaints about nurses misusing social media (Spector & Kappel,

In the present culture of the United States, social media has had a major impact in American society. It has a profound influence and intertwined itself in almost every aspect of the average American’s life. It ranges from providing updates of location of a person(s), events, and sharing personal moments. Even different industries are utilizing social media as a platform for communication, information, and sales mediums. One industry, the health care field has seen a rise in the utilization of social media. For instance, an emerging population of physicians are using social media apps such as Snap Chat, Facebook, and YouTube to educate, display surgical, and medical procedures while being performed. In contrast, as there are positive aspects of utilizing social media, a negative trait of social media is invading and exposing individual’s privacy. As of recent, a New York licensed nurse had to surrender her nursing license and sentenced to 3 years of probation for “moral unfitness in the practice (Bowerman, 2016).” She took photos with her phone of two unconscious male patient’s genitalia and shared them with coworkers. This has become an increasing issue and as the utilization of social media in healthcare is increasing, many ethical issues are developing. For instance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was passed for the adoption of a national standard for electronic health care transactions and code sets, unique health identifiers,

The rapid development of technology throughout modern society has initiated the widespread use of social networking. Social networking plays a positive role in healthcare when educating, communicating, or advertising. However, poor judgments have the power to turn this positive into negative and damage professional reputations. Griffith (2014) stresses the importance of understanding that protected health information is not a matter of open secrets. Whether a lawyer, doctor, nurse, or a secretary, it is important to avoid conditions that may influence the health and security of patients or clients, as well as their own professional reputation (Aylott, 2011). The Purpose of this paper is to explore the appropriate use of cell phones and social networking in healthcare and the importance of understanding the ethical boundaries between professional uses opposed to personal use.

The medical professionals who were supposed to be caring for this dying patient failed to concentrate on his thoughtful care, and instead took a few photos of this gentleman and posted them on Facebook. Several of the staff lost their job and others disciplined for this cruel lack of integrity. In another incident in California at Tri-City Medical Center, nurses discussed patients on Facebook. While no job losses were reported, those involved were reported. Five nurses lost their employment by simply taking digital photos on their phones of a suicidal person and even snapping images of patient x-rays. Several reports have been made of nurse’s curiosity getting them in trouble by looking up records of celebrities. A contract nurse wound up seeking new employment for looking into records on patients not assigned to them at the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, seeking information on those hurt in the shooting that injured congresswoman Giffords. A nursing student examining a placenta – if in the scope of the day’s assignment and thus presumed appropriate, is one thing, but crossed a huge threshold when photographed and posted on Facebook. The consequence was large, kicked out of nursing school and a subsequent lawsuit.

While using social media can be valuable to doctors and nurses, inappropriate use of these tools can be devastating to a health professional career. Here are some examples

Linking this information to our conclusion scenario, we can clearly identify that the attending nurse was in absolute violation of HIPAA’s Privacy Rule; posting such photos on an unprotected social media website without any permission of the attending party (patient) in such condition and within the environment of the attending medical facility was with direct

With the advancement of modern technology, social media is increasingly finding use in healthcare delivery and management. Health professionals including doctors, nurses and therapists have adopted social media to communicate with their patients and for health sensitization. Social media can benefit healthcare delivery in a variety of ways including fostering professional connections, patient and community education and promoting communication with patients and families. On the other hand, use of social media in healthcare exposes patients’ data to breaches and leakages creating confidentiality issues. Misuse of patient data results in serious career penalties for negligent medical professionals. Protocols have been established to oversee the use of social medial by health practitioners. The paper seeks to explore the recognized rules that regulate the use of social media, and its risks and benefits. Health professionals should utilize benefits of social media while adhering to confidentiality, privacy, and ethical guidelines for private or professional communications with respect to patient data.

Nancy Spector, whom holds a PhD, RN titles from the University of Wisconsin, distinguishes that most patient privacy violations are due to nurses not taking the time to think before posting and inadvertently putting the patient’s info out for persons not admitted to see it. Spector states “The quick and efficient technology enabling use of social media reduces not only the time it takes to post, but also the time to consider whether the post is appropriate and what ramifications may come from posting inappropriate content.” Nurses should be able to use social media to help further their relationships with patients and co-workers, with the healthy understanding of how to do so wisely.

Nurses never know what their day is going to consist of, from the number of patients, to the amount of medication being administered. Nursing is a critical thinking career that uses rules and regulation to keep it well organized, safe, and in order. Use of technology in healthcare has taken root, and this has its benefits and disadvantages. Smartphones and other similar gadgets have become so common in the society and healthcare is not an exception. Use of these gadgets by healthcare personnel especially nurses has key legal and ethical issues that need careful evaluation. From the scenario, the use of smartphones has several implications on the performance of the nurse who is also on a night shift. The ending of the scenario entails representing the previous experience to social media and posting of photos that compromise the privacy of the patient. In this discussion, the ending of the scenario is discussed based on moral and ethical issues of the case study.

Michael J. Ackerman et al. (2013) describes his experience as well as topics discussed at the meeting of the American Medical Informatics Association that he attends each year. One session titled “Privacy, mHealth, and Social Media,” brought up an important question; can you ethically look up a troubling patient on social media in order to get information that did not add up during your patient interview? (Ackerman, 2013). Resulting from HIPAA only covering providers and not patients, medical information given away on social media by an individual has waved their right to privacy, giving all users access to the information posted (Ackerman, 2013). It is important for social media users to understand that the information they post, as well as store in the personal health record kept on their smart-phone, is accessible to other users and further and unwanted information may also be released or obtained in the case of one losing their phone. Ackerman also states that due to patients now having the ability to send data obtained from m-health devices to their physician and expect an immediate response and interpretation, there are now several guidelines for physicians to follow when using social media (2013).

Taylor, Kuwana, Wilfond (2014) discuss the ethical considerations in healthcare for social media. They bring forward issues such as collecting data for healthcare, and also recontacting patients through social media. Is it ethically acceptable to gather information on a patient through their social media (i.e. Facebook) accounts? (Taylor et al. 2014). Furthermore if a patient cannot be contacted via their phone or email, is it then suitable for professionals to contact them through social media (Taylor et al.

“Social media have invaded health care from at least three fronts: innovative startups, patient communities and medical centers” (John Sharp 2010). The Social Media arena helps the health care system for their planning strategy and their marketing. However, their use is very controversial. There is a discussion about the use of social media in the healthcare settings due to its vulnerability. Even though social media is important for the healthcare development, the security issues will remain big concerns for the healthcare system.

* Don 't add people you don 't know as friends! You don 't know if