Patient Privacy Violations

The objective of this study is to examine the importance of not sharing patient information through social media. According to the work of Adler (2011) many physicians are violating HIPAA and do not know it. Dimick (2010) writes that nurses at the Fargo, ND-based healthcare system in 2008 were using Facebook to "provide unauthorized shift change updates to their co-workers. What once would have been a conversation became an update on their personal Facebook pages. It was a convenient tool, because the nurses had "friended" each other through Facebook and thus could quickly read what each other wrote on their pages. They did not use patient names, but they did post enough specifics about patients so that the incoming nurses could prepare for their shift. The problem was that everyone else "friended" to their Facebook pages could also read the information." (p.1) The use of social media to talk about work "sharing sensitive patient or proprietary business information that same easy use and powerful reach broadcasts guarded information to large numbers of people." (Dimick, 2010, p.1) Release of information that is sensitive over social media can result in great harm to the reputation of an organization, violations of HIPAWA and ultimately result in "breach notifications and hefty fines." (Dimick, 2010, p.2) Dimick writes that Kaiser Permanente published "an organization-wide social media policy that explains appropriate staff

Applications are being designed for daily to help nurses maintain that focus on whats really important. Which includes: EpocratesRX, Nursing Central, Nurse’s Pocket Guide, ShiftPlanning, and Evernote which are helpful applications that takes the focus off of social media, messaging,

The rapid development of technology throughout modern society has initiated the widespread use of social networking. Social networking plays a positive role in healthcare when educating, communicating, or advertising. However, poor judgments have the power to turn this positive into negative and damage professional reputations. Griffith (2014) stresses the importance of understanding that protected health information is not a matter of open secrets. Whether a lawyer, doctor, nurse, or a secretary, it is important to avoid conditions that may influence the health and security of patients or clients, as well as their own professional reputation (Aylott, 2011). The Purpose of this paper is to explore the appropriate use of cell phones and social networking in healthcare and the importance of understanding the ethical boundaries between professional uses opposed to personal use.

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

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.

Therefore the use of social media in nursing (e.g. learning, exploration and training) will be limitless.

The articles are very consistent in their viewpoints regarding the positives and negatives of using social media in the nursing profession. Social media is the future of nursing and will only continue to grow (Lachman, 2013). The process of communication is continually evolving and changing and the nursing profession needs to harness this (Ferguson). Though most of the articles have found that the positives outweigh the negatives, they do acknowledge that there are indeed a lot of negatives related to the use of social media in a professional setting such as this. Ferguson (2013),

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,

Social Media in Nursing and The Effect it has on Jobs, Facilities and Nursing Students

It is no secret as to how fast social media has grown over the past decade between helping connect with long lost friends and family on Facebook, getting your resume out to others through LinkedIn, sharing a video on YouTube, or even just letting off some steam on Twitter, hard to believe that so much of this we see in our day to day lives can be creating such a controversy within the Health Care System. Most of these sites listed are made into little convenient applications on majority of the populations smart phones that can be helpful as well as distracting (Gill, Kamath, & Gill, 2012).

In the article Ethics and social media (2014, Vol 27(4)), written by Dr. Constance Milton, talked about how to control the use of social media applications in nursing discipline. There are some commitment and liability when using these social media application especially in nursing career.

Social media is a term we use daily in our lives and is a trend that continues to grow at a very rapid pace like technology. Not only do we as individuals use social media to post life events and share photos to friends and family, but we also have the habit of using it for first impressions of others and broadcasting small town news. Whether we realize it or not, newspapers and face to face conversations are becoming a thing of the past in our generation. Just like everything else created, with the good also comes the bad. Social media is a blessing and a curse in the healthcare industry.

Social Media can reduce the cost of the healthcare marketing. Facebook; YouTube; and Twitter can help the Board members of the PMH to promote the new clinic and to get new patients from the contacts obtained through the social media.

This assignment is to introduce the risks of using social media inappropriately as a student and registered nurse, this could include confidential information or information about another student or colleague. The Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) social media policy and the student code of conduct will be explored; this will gain the information needed to help justify the use of social media as a nurse.

The International Nurse Regulator Collaborative (2014) cites that social media are networking sites for online interaction. This