SOCIAL MEDIA AND NURSES’ ETHICS

SOCIAL MEDIA AND NURSES’ ETHICS
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The social media platforms whose activity has been considered for the purpose of this essay are Facebook and twitter. On Facebook, I commented on the condition of a child living with Albinism. Based on my knowledge on nursing, I explained the weaknesses and deficiencies which people living with the condition contend with on daily basis. This exposed the child to ridicule by various social media users who made fun of the condition. Another comment I identified was made on the Twitter page of a patient I interacted with seeking to find out the progress of the patient. This had the effect of exposing the patient as having suffered from depression. Though the intention was noble; checking on the progress of the recovery of the patient, it broke the confidentiality required on the part of nurses. Another comment made on Twitter is regarding the severity of a car accident victim’s injuries. The comment alluded to the slim chances of survival due to the degree of injuries observed. Such a post can negatively impact on the reputation of the nursing field.
Nurses have a role of upholding set standards in all their work related and personal interactions. This is for the purpose of protecting the integrity of the profession and also maintaining the confidentiality and dignity of patients. This arises from the fact that nurses come across a lot of information in the course of their work. At the work level the codes of conduct of nurses include a provision that is known as conscientious objection. It holds that nursing practitioners are barred from declining to provide treatment to patients. As such, the nurses professional conduct requires according of professional health care by nurses to all without regard for factors such as age, gender, race, religion or ethnicity. The care by nurses should be prioritized on the need levels of the patients and bias should not be existent in the provision of nursing care. Career progression of the nurses and renewal of nursing licenses is based on consistent adherence to the codes of conduct requiring nondiscriminatory offering of services to all, confidentiality, and upholding of human dignity at all the times CITATION Lef20 \l 1033 (Lefebvre, et al., 2020).
HIPAA is a law that was enacted in 1996 that acts a guide on sharing of personal health information of workers CITATION Moo19 \l 1033 (Moore & Frye, 2019). Sharing of the conditions patients and other personal information violates the privacy rule of HIPAA. The security rule of the law makes it criminal for anyone exposing the data contained in the databases of medical establishments detailing medial records. Personal conduct of nurses if unchecked or unregulated can easily violate the provisions of the act. Such may include exposing the ailments of clients on their social media pages, providing advise to patients openly on social media hence expos...