The Swift and Dramatic Explosion of 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

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 Nursing and The Effect it has on Jobs, Facilities and Nursing Students

Social media has taken over the way that we interact with one another. It is leading the way in which we communicate with family, friends, coworkers and strangers. It is also the way we keep up with our favorite celebrities and gossip. Social media and the use of smartphones are becoming more prevalent in business and the healthcare field as well. According to Pew Research Center, “62% of smartphone owners have used their phone in the past year to look up information about a health condition” (April, 2015). Technology, just like all things come with flaws

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:

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

Article: Tuckett A & Turner C 2016, ‘Do you use social media? A study into new nursing and midwifery graduates ' uptake of social media’, International Journal of Nursing Practice, no. 22, pp. 197–204, doi:10.1111/ijn.12411

Health information communication technology (HICT) is the new standard in healthcare when it comes to enhanced patient care and education. According to Elsevier Journal (2013), “Searching the World Wide Web for healthcare information is second only to searching for sites related to sex, while multiple forms of social media, now increasingly mobile, are challenging the limits of healthcare providers’ professionalism” (Reis et. al., 2013). This shows an increasing prevalence in the use of HICTs in both healthcare and the general population. Discussing the use of HICTs will further education about how beneficial they are to healthcare systems. This paper will outline the importance of HICTS in healthcare and the nurse’s role in the use of HICTs

For many, social media is how to stay connected with what is going on in the world, but for nursing students this craze can be quite dangerous (Peck, 2014). Anything that is posted online can be seen, reported, and cause someone’s life to change in an instant. For example, if a student nurse connects with one of their clients on social media, this client has access to the student’s personal life. Not only is the student crossing the boundary of the therapeutic nurse-client relationship, but he or she is not showcasing a professional image and may be putting him or herself at risk (International Nurse Regulator Collaborative, 2014). Other scenarios involving unsuitable use of social media include complaining about a client or co-worker, posting inappropriate photos, etc. (See Appendix) (College of Nurses of Ontario, 2013). Moreover, it is important for all nurses, especially students to learn the importance of navigating social media in a way that keeps their professional and private life

There are numerous management positions in the nursing profession. These positions give nurses the opportunity to manage a group or a specialized field instead of managing only their normal roles. When more nurses fill these positions it has a ripple effect on the entire profession. Management positions enable nurses’ voices to be heard and present the world with an upholding image of nursing. A nurse that is constantly thinking about the image of nursing as a whole has the ability to influence everyone around them. Another contributor to the image of nursing is social media. Social media sites such as “Facebook” and “Twitter” have a very large impact on how people see nurses. Nurses must manage themselves when posting on the Internet to avoid corrupting the image they’ve worked so hard to uphold.

The use of social media for purposes of communication in healthcare contexts has been growing and increasingly becoming acceptable. Specifically, health organizations, health professionals, patients, and members of the general public have been using social media for various purposes within a healthcare setting. Based on this understanding and lack of knowledge of the impact of social media on interpersonal communication in a healthcare context, future research needs to explore the effects of social media on quality of interpersonal communication and the extent to which it impacts healthcare

As social media becomes an essential way to communicate, nurse must be aware of what are appropriate and illegitimate uses of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Nurses must use their best judgment in what they post, because they are responsible for protecting the public view of nurses, and most importantly, former and present patient confidentiality. Social media education should not start when a nurse starts their career, but while they are still in school. Richard G. Booth of Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University, London, Canada, studied the use of Twitter by nursing students. In 2011, Booth collected 498 tweets over a six day

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).

Using this viewpoint, health care leaders can see the importance of using social media to stay in tuned with what patients are saying. For a health care organization to succeed they must provide quality care and quality service. If the patient population is not satisfied they are likely to vocalize their opinions to friends and families through social media. Health care leaders can create blogs or chats where consumers can express their concerns as a means to fix issues the organization may be experiencing. The information generated from social media can then be used by health care leaders to improve the organization, with the hopes of making their organization a leader in their community.