Professionalism and Social Media in Nurses

Professionalism and Social Media Usage
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Professionalism and Social Media Usage
Introduction
Social media usages affect nurses’ professional and personal lives. Various social media sites are available for nurses within their practice contexts, including social networking platforms and blogs. Social media could enhance professional collaboration and engagement by enabling nurses to network with colleagues. Nevertheless, social media usage has potential threats to nursing practitioners and patients, particularly concerning professional-personal boundaries violations, undermining patient confidentiality, harming professional reputation, and licensing or legal issues. This report delineates social media issues that could be viewed as inappropriate or unprofessional and potentially detrimental to nurses' practice, negatively affecting the nursing profession's image.
Potentially Inappropriate Conversations or Posts
After evaluating my social media posts, I realized that I have been making numerous postings on Facebook that could be viewed as unprofessional. For example, there is a post where I complained concerning how challenging and exhausting it was to remain at the workplace past routine hours. In yet another post, I described how I got frustrated by a drunk patient who staggered and urinated on the floor on the waiting section. Despite not mentioning the patient’s name or posting his photo, the post was undermined the nursing code of ethics. Research posits that a nurse should never criticize patients, even within anonymity contexts (Weiss et al., 2019). In this vein, it is unprofessional and inappropriate to publicly share my dissatisfaction at the workplace since it could undermine patient confidence in the healthcare practice or facility.
Why Nurses Need to Uphold Standards of Conduct
Nurses should promote congruent standards with the requirements governing their professional practices at their workplaces and within their individual lives to protect the nursing profession and medical practice reputation. Posting of inappropriate information in social media spheres reflects negatively on their organizations and their careers. Nurses’ social media activities or conversations are held as public engagements (Ventola, 2014). Therefore, the posted contents reflect the entire nursing professionalism and could influence public opinion on nurses.
As a nurse, my behavioral inc...