Representative quotations
| Patient confidentiality | Disclosing confidential information about a patient to the general public is never permissible. One fellow student … described the age of the patient, gender, and exactly what injuries they sustained in detail … she did not disclose the name of this patient, but if my Grandma had an accident and was taken to this small rural hospital last night, it would not be hard to figure out that was who she was talking about. If you want to ‘debrief’ to your friends on a one-to-one level about what you saw or experienced that it is fine. But putting it up as your ‘status’ is inappropriate and not necessary. She was doing it so that all the other non-nurses on her friends list can see what a cool job she has When people say they had, ‘the worst patient ever today’, or when they discuss ‘helped deliver a baby in the front lobby of the hospital today’.... I know if that had been me I would not want someone posting it all over Facebook |
| Activities considered unprofessional | Many students post pictures of them partying on the weekend, which could generate negative opinions about the healthcare profession because it is not the behavior expected of a professional |
| Unprofessional material observed from others | A lot of nursing students share their frustrations of the faculty on Facebook, and will tell positive stories about their time at clinical My most appalling example is photos of a peer with a cadaver that were posted on Facebook |
| Unprofessional material posted by self | I have unprofessional pictures on Facebook, and don't see any conflict with this in my professional life as a soon to be registered nurse The odd time this has happened has been when I've been intoxicated. In my first career, around 5 years ago (when FB was relatively new), I posted on a colleagues wall asking about a client. I was asking in a caring manner, but still should not have. Lesson learned. Now I do not have work colleagues on my FB nor would I write about a client. Something inappropriate was said in class by a professor and I joined a thread poking fun at that professor. I did remove the post when I realized what I had done |
| Unprofessional material affecting self | I'm sure a lot of the pictures of me during my undergrad could be considered unprofessional |
| Freedom of speech | If patients and clients have the right to have their personal lives and information kept from being disclosed, then me being a health professional—I also have a personal life. One that is enjoyed and should be able to be enjoyed freely without interference or judgment |
| Risk | Facebook is tons of fun... but a scary place! Way too much info floating around. People can make things up, or post photos of you without your consent I think one has to be very careful with Facebook, and often I don't think people realize the negative affects it can have Many people can misjudge a post on a social media site or take it out of context, resulting in a false negative image for the user |
| Control | I have no control over who snaps a picture of me doing something in my personal life and posting them on Facebook You have to be squeaky clean everywhere in life, or Facebook could be used to haunt you. A friend posted pictures of me and some of my other friends acting silly, and I was upset that she had not earlier asked for my consent or the consent of my friends who were against the pictures being posted, so I made her remove the pictures There are photos of me being silly/drunk from earlier years of my life on Facebook, but I have untagged myself. There is nothing really bad because I would never let someone take a really unprofessional picture of me |
| Attitudes to guidelines | I firmly support the idea of social media guidelines imparted by the university and/or professional licensing body Some guidelines should be in place to set a standard but definitely not a list of ‘Don'ts’ that would restrict our freedom Guidelines could help by making things more concrete, though in the end, I think things are up to one's professional judgment |