Understanding Social Media As A Student Of Nursing

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

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.

Social media (digital technology) platforms are defined as any form of digital communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos). Over the last several years, the use of social media platforms such as blogs, text messaging, games, and Twitter, have had significant growth. Social media tools have become an effective way to expand reach, foster engagement and increase access to credible, evidence-based health information.

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.

As a health professional I must understand that the misuse of social media may have a severe detrimental effect on my career as discussed by the British journal of nursing (Farrelly, 2014). Nurses may face termination and possible criminal penalties. I also must understand that my actions may damage the reputation of the University or health care organisation I am working for. I will need to think carefully about anything I post on social media, including about my private life, as this could have an impact on any future job prospects. With my role I plan to become more professional with what I am posting on sites such as Facebook, to present a professional image to future employees. ----find another

Technology today has an easy access to direct communication. Social media is an effective way tool for nurses today, but with this resource comes great responsibility. As a nursing student I must maintain patient confidentiality and privacy at all times, as well as serving a positive representation of my institution. Nurses and nursing student are responsible for what they display on social media, and with this privilege comes consequences if not used appropriately. Social media has consequences amongst nurses such as federal legislation, privacy, laws and legal actions.

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

Blogging has become more popular in recent years and has even made its way into the nursing profession. Blogs may tell stories that are funny, describe a heart-wrenching event, gripe about work. Research into blogging and the nursing profession, has given insight on why some nurses blog and how and why nurses choose to use blogs. Some of the ways blogs can help nurses is through their ability to educate others, to mentor nursing students, or to mentor nurses changing areas of profession. Some blogs are directed towards a certain genre like nursing students. These blogs attract nursing students and even when they graduate there will always be a class behind them that will and can relate to the same blogs. They can relate to the same blog because they are in chronical order by date and can even be searched for by topic. Nurses use blogs as a way to communicate to their peers and also provides a platform for them to mentor a group or an individual.

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.