The Internet And Social Media

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.

We Can But Dare We: A Look into the Use of Social Media in Healthcare

There are many public service announcements, advertisements, or paid social marketing that target the health field. Methods that are used in other industries that can be use in hospitals is the emergence of new technology. Technology that offer easier communication to health providers and their patient. It will also enable them to learn skills that are needed in their daily lives or future jobs. Social media has also taken a huge toll on hospitals and health systems. Generally, social media is used to communicate things outside of the work field. Today, it is use to communicate messages about current and new issues. Overall, the methods of media is one of the innovation that helps to improve communication in the health care field. It allows easy understanding through the healthcare providers and its

This paper examines the public perception of nurses and how social media can be both a detriment and a benefit to the career field.

Social media in hospitals can affect the patient as well as the nurse and the nursing student. Westrick states: “Nurses must find a balance between taking advantage of the benefits social media use

Edie Brous, RN, wrote an article on how the internet, social media and other new technologies have advanced. The use of social media has taken the free speech amendment to another level against those who don’t understand the restrictions. Nurses share ideas that they believed can be helpful when they post things but they must understand the legal risks of misusing. It’s becoming so broad that now different healthcare and professional organizations use it to communicate with their patients. There is a understanding to free speech limitation Brous notes:

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 advantages and disadvantages of using traditional, electronic, and social media for health care communication

This report is intended to be presented to senior management within the NHS. It evaluates the challenges that NHS Choices is facing with its current social media adoption or use and does so through an evaluation of two social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter. The selection of these two specific social media platforms is driven by the popularity of Facebook and Twitter with the UK population. In an Ofcom report published in 2014, 96% of online adults used Facebook as their default social networking site closely followed by Twitter (Ofcom, 2014). It is important therefore to evaluate how NHS Direct can utilise social media to effectively communicate with the UK population. This report is divided into two subsequent parts. Part II evaluates the challenges that NHS Choices currently face with regards to its current adoption. Part III builds on this analysis by advising how NHS Choices can effectively use social media to improve the services provided to patients.

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

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.

Ressier, with the University of Massachusetts- Boston College of Nursing and Health Sciences states that, “as we educate a new generation of nurses, use of social media will be an integral component in their ability to practice competently, effectively, and collaboratively with team members, patients, and families.” Times are changing and social media is the fastest growing forum out there. Nurses will need to be able to navigate these apps when the time is right.

The use of social media is widespread and ever increasing, at the beginning of the 3rd quarter of 2016 there is 1.79 billion active Facebook users and 2.34 billion social media users across all platforms (Statista, 2016). This trend can also be seen in healthcare professionals and will increase as younger practioners join the workforce. A survey in 2011 by the Medical Protection society found that 36% of doctors used Facebook on a daily basis and that 100% of medical students have Facebook accounts with Ofcom reporting that 80 % of adults in the UK has some sort of social medial account.

McNab, C. (2009). What social media offers to health professionals and citizens. Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://Bulletin of the World Health Organization

At the same time, health care organizations find challenges in adopting social media. Hospital and medical practices are risk adverse and generally cautious about new technology trends without clear value. There are questions about whether social media use by hospital employees is a waste of time, or even worse, presents risks of violating HIPAA or leaking proprietary information. Hospital IT departments are concerned about security risks, such as the use of tinyurl.com, which can mask malicious Web sites. Privacy concerns, particularly the vulnerability of social media accounts, are also cited as a reason to avoid social media. (John Sharp 2010).