One of the most critical discussions of our time is whether or not we can reform the healthcare sector enough for most citizens to benefit from it. Healthcare administration and public health are two topics which should be of interest to every stakeholder in the sector. The paper identifies three topics which stand out and are in need of deeper interrogation. These include the position of ethics in public health, use of technology in both public health and health administration, and the value of sound public health policy in the country. Understanding the sector makes it possible for organizations to base their decisions on accurate, relevant and current information.
Use of Technology
All stakeholders should be quite interested in the direction social media is headed and whether or not the platforms can be used for public health purposes. The evidence shows that it is impossible to ignore social media and its role as a communications channel. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all combine to command billions of followers. More than 20 million Americans said that they got part of their primary news from Facebook or Twitter (Risling, 2017). Public health is about information and the best way of getting it to the people. Therefore, we should be interested in how we can use social media to advance public health messages. We cannot ignore a technological marvel that lets healthcare professionals reach millions of people right in the palm of their hands.
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That said, the technological development also has effects on the privacy and security of communication. In the past, it was relatively easy to store information since it was in files. One put all the files in a secure room and then locked it and controlled entry. The issue becomes more complicated when one starts using social media. A patient’s name in a Whatsapp group is as secure as the members of the group want it. Facebook and Twitter are prone to hacking and the spreading of “fake news.” Healthcare professionals have to be alert to the dangers they create even as they seek to leverage technology in their work. They have to act within the law while seeking innovative ways of improving service quality. The use of social media in the healthcare sector is indeed a vexing topic which does require some research on my part and that of others in the field.
Ethics in Healthcare
The world is changing and so are its norms meaning that professionals in every sector have to find a way to deal with the shifts. For example, children’s rights have become a source of discussion even as the present legal and regulatory dispensation continues to exist. Some have questioned the broad mandate given to parents when it comes to health issues. For instance, some states still retain religious freedom laws which allow parents to deny their children medical attention on religious grounds (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). How are healthcare workers expected to deal with such issues in the future? Does it make sense to let a child suffer and possibly die because of his or her parent’s belief? What is the value of prosecuting such parents when the law did not prevent the deaths? These are questions which each healthcare professionals should ask going forward.
Secondly, how do healthcare professionals act in a changing environment especially when it comes to social media and the presentation of the profession as a whole? In the past, nurses and other workers had relatively little restraint as they enjoyed their personal lives. However, that has completely changed with social media and smart devices. For example, a nurse’s views are not restricted to her personal life anymore. Therefore, a nurse’s views on politics will have a reverberating effect beyond his or her immediate family. In such a situation, the professional organizations have to find a way to protect the sector without denying its members their rights to expression. Nurses do not want to alienate sections of their patient populations but at the same time, they have to express themselves. Ethics discussions should center on finding a viable solution.
Social Media as Part of a Communications Strategy
Finally, it is critical to think about social media as a part of a nurse’s communication arsenal and strategy. One has to first begin thinking about the platforms in terms of efficacy. How prevalent is social media in the market? How much do people trust it? How can the healthcare professionals use the platform without losing their professionalism? As stated, there is no doubt that social media is efficient. The secret is to find the right way to target the users. For instance, public health professionals must be knowledgeable about ad blindness. It is the phenomenon whereby the users passively skip over advertising content on their social media pages (Denecke et al., 2015). Appreciating and researching features like these make it that much more likely that nurses will use social media effectively.
The nurses and other healthcare professionals must also be aware of the proliferation of fake news. A decade ago, Dr. Andrew Wakefield conned the scientific world through his anti-vaccine “study” in the “Lancet.” One can only imagine how much damage that kind of subterfuge would cause today. Therefore nurses and healthcare professionals have to ask themselves how they can use social media as a force for good. The world needs reputable information now more than ever. Nurses and other healthcare professionals need to be part of the fight against ignorance and disinformation.
References
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management . Elsevier Health Sciences.
Denecke, K., Bamidis, P., Bond, C., Gabarron, E., Househ, M., Lau, A. Y. S., ... & Hansen, M. (2015). Ethical issues of social media usage in healthcare. Yearbook of Medical Informatics , 24 (01), 137-147.
Risling, T. (2017). Educating the nurses of 2025: Technology trends of the next decade. Nurse Education in Practice , 22 , 89-92.
