Professionalism and social media

Professionalism and Social Media
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Professionalism and Social Media
Social media platforms provide communication methods, and nurses can relay messages, seek support from their colleagues, or express their feelings online. Nurses can use social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to share current best nursing practices, health care advances, and personal experiences. Besides, social media tools have become an important way of recruiting and hiring nurses. However, healthcare organizations have policies that guide how nurses should utilize such platforms. One of the nurses' responsibilities is to respect the emotions or feelings of patients and persons they interact with. Social media use can result in unexpected consequences when shared information is reported and screened. Therefore, nurses need to avoid unpleasant outcomes and prevent risks associated with sharing information online regarding patients or persons they interact with. Based on my profile, pictures, and posts in my social media accounts, this paper will identify items that might be considered unprofessional or potentially detrimental to my career or negatively hurt the reputation of the nursing practice.
In the recent past, I have had social media posts and conversations that could be considered inappropriate based on nursing professional standards. My profile and some of my pictures and posts reflect unethical conduct and unbecoming of nursing practice. For instance, I recently contributed to some negative conversation about my work satisfaction and commented in a harassing and threatening manner to one of my colleague's posts. I further advanced to complain about my colleagues at my workplace. Besides, I have posted my profile pictures that contain images of people who were unaware while I was taking the photos. Such acts may contravene the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In a 2011 study of 260 Twitter users and over 5100 messages, 3 percent of tweets were unprofessional, and some represented a potential violation of patient privacy (Ahmed et al., 2018). Examples of posts and images I have uploaded on my Twitter and Facebook accounts could be considered inappropriate based on the nursing professional standards.
Besides an accreditation education process and a rigorous system of certification and licensure, nurses must follow a set code of ethics to practice with integrity and competency (Epstein & Turner, 2015). At all times, nurses have to uphold a standard of conduct that is in line with the standards that govern nursing practice in their workplaces and personal lives. Acts such as inappropriate sharing images of patients are examples of conducts that violate HIPAA and may be considered unprofessional or unethical. Nurses have a moral obligation to uphold human dignity as a fundamental human righ...