Assignment: Professionalism and Social Media

Assignment: Professionalism and Social Media

Social media plays a significant role in the lives of nurses in both their professional and personal lives. Additionally, social media is now considered a mainstream part of the process for recruiting and hiring candidates. Inappropriate or unethical conduct on social media can create legal problems for nurses as well as the field of nursing.

Login to all social media sites in which you engage. Review your profile, pictures and posts. Based on the professional standards of nursing, identify items that would be considered unprofessional and potentially detrimental to your career and that negatively impact the reputation of the nursing field.

In 500-750 words, summarize the findings of your review. Include the following:

1. Describe the posts or conversations in which you have engaged that might be considered inappropriate based on the professional standards of nursing.
2. Discuss why nurses have a responsibility to uphold a standard of conduct consistent with the standards governing the profession of nursing at work and in their personal lives. Include discussion of how personal conduct can violate HIPAA or be considered unethical or unprofessional. Provide an example of each to support your answer.
3. Based on the analysis of your social media, discuss what areas of your social media activity reflect Christian values as they relate to respecting human value and dignity for all individuals. Describe areas of your social media activity that could be improved.

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Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

Professionalism and Social Media

Nursing is among the professions where ethics must be observed at all times. It is a sensitive field where professionals must be cautious about treating others, connecting as professionals, and sharing information. Like other people, nurses are social media users. They usually use social media platforms to get informed about what is happening worldwide, socialize with colleagues and other people, and educate the masses on various health-related matters.

On a personal level, using social media is part of everyday life. However, as Edge (2017) mentioned, professionals, including nurses, may be unaware of their vulnerability online. In this case, they should be somewhat private about their political, social, and professional viewpoints, mainly if the information is sensitive. Nurses should be aware of privacy breaches and behave in a way that matches the generally expected nursing standards. When I reflect on what I post and the conversations I engage in, I think being open about American politics is inappropriate. When a nurse shows open bias regarding global or national political matters, a scenario where people close to him/her may feel apprehensive when seeking medical assistance from such nurses is inevitable. In the same case, I believe that posting about what we do and our locations contravene with the general expectations regarding how a nurse should behave. However, I believe that we learn and improve practice gradually, and I am not an exception.

Nurses are a reflection of what the nursing practice entails. They should behave in a way that makes patients and society at large confident in them. As a result, they should uphold a standard of conduct consistent with the nursing profession’s standards, at work and in their personal lives. The best way of upholding a standard of conduct is behaving as the general ethical guidelines of nursing recommend and ensure that their conduct does not violate HIPAA.

Typical personal conduct that can violate HIPAA is failing to observe the HIPAA Privacy Rule. This rule protects patients from privacy issues by obliging nurses not to disclose protected health information [PHI]. This category of information [HPI] includes texts about specific patients, images, or videos that could reveal a patient’s identity (HIPAA Journal, 2018). This implies that the only time when social media posts can contain patient data is when a patient has given consent. The consent should be in writing, and details to be revealed mentioned in the consent form.

Based on my social media, several areas of my activity reflect Christian values as they relate to respecting human values and dignity for all individuals. The first area is being empathetic with the populace’s suffering through illnesses and providing the masses with tips about healthy living. As lifestyles change, the ratio of people exposed to lifestyle diseases increases gradually. Due to its risk on public health, I share data that can help people change their way of living to reduce their vulnerability to illnesses.

Besides health tips, I share details of events and facilities dealing with specialty care to ensure that people have adequate information about where they can get help when facing various health challenges. When new medical research emerges, I am ready to share and discuss such information too. However, some areas need massive improvement. I think it is important to avoid gossip and unverified information. Also, details on accidents are somewhat sensitive and private. Since the goal is improving as we learn, I firmly believe that I will be better over time and use social media in the most professionally way possible. I am determined to do so.

References

Edge, W. (2017). Nursing professionalism: Impact of social media use among nursing students. Journal of Healthcare Communications, 2(3), 2472-1654. DOI: 10.4172/2472-1654.100068

HIPAA Journal. (2018, Mar 12). HIPAA Social Media Rules. https://www.hipaajournal.com/hipaa-social-media/

Assessment of Social Media Identifying Unprofessional Items

14.8 points

Nurse Responsibility to Uphold a Standard of Conduct

29.6 points

Human Value and Dignity for Others Consistent with a Christian Worldview (MC3

14.8 points

Thesis Development and Purpose

3.7 points