Social media represents a powerful tool that is used for communication. Over the last decade, the rate of social media use is exponentially increasing. Health care workers are realizing how important social media is as a tool for disseminating vital healthcare information. Social media has allowed health care professionals to interact with their patients and colleagues and pass important healthcare information, which is useful to the general public. Social media's ability to reach a wide audience has made it instrumental in improving healthcare and relationships between physicians and the general public. Despite the numerous benefits of social media in healthcare, its use in this context brings other additional risks that medical practitioners must learn to navigate. The major risk introduced by social media is the breach of HIPAA guidelines about patient information privacy. Understanding the social media best practices and risks to patients could be crucial in protecting the patients’ privacy.
HIPAA has formulated guidelines regarding Electronic Protected Health Information. These rules protect patient health information from breaches. The general rules involve ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of health information. This helps protect against security threats to information by preventing disclosures or impermissible use (Singh, Awani, Wal, & Tiwari, 2016) . Health professionals can utilize social media to improve healthcare. According to Brown (2016), some social media best practices include:
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Nurses and other health professionals must understand that they have an ethical and legal responsibility for protecting the privacy of the patient while also maintaining confidentiality always.
Healthcare professionals must not transmit any patient-related information through social media, whether images or personal information. This is against the violation of patient privacy and confidentiality. The sharing of a patient's images and whether celebrating their recovery should not be done without the patient's written consent (Rye, 2018) .
Nurses should never identify patients by their names or post information that may lead to patient identification. Restricting the viewers of the post is not enough to protect the patient’s privacy and confidentiality.
Nurses and other health professionals should refer patients with absolute value without disparaging them in any manner regardless of whether they are not mentioned. Disparaging comments should also not be made about employers or coworkers (Rye, 2018) .
Nurses should also refrain from taking any photos of the patients or with the patients using their devices.
All healthcare professionals must consult their supervisors/employers before making any work-related. Any posting made should comply with the organization and HIPAA privacy and confidentiality policies.
In case of any privacy or confidentiality breaches, nurses must report this information to enable the appropriate measures to be taken. This helps reduce damages to the organization and the patient.
Following these guidelines is essential for ensuring that the privacy and confidentiality of patients and organizations are protected when using social media. Failing to follow these best practices could result in a breach of patient information, which could result in negative risks on the patient (Ozair et al., 2015). The major risk involves privacy invasion and violation of confidentiality (Singh, Awani, Wal, & Tiwari, 2016) . P osting patients’ information on social media could invade their privacy by revealing their medical history. This could have devastating effects on the patient and their families and may result in stress. According to Hao & Gao (2017), the release of medical information violates the confidentiality of the patient, which may result in social stigma. This could result in lawsuits, which could have damaging effects on the organization and the nurse in question.
Social media has become a part of human life where information can be shared worldwide. In healthcare, it helps in communication and dissemination of information, which helps improve healthcare. However, its use may pose certain threats to patients and the organization. Nurses should ensure that they follow the HIPAA guidelines about the electronic sharing of information, which requires them to avoid posting patient information on social media. Posting this information could result in gross violation of patient privacy and confidentiality. All nurses should ensure that they never personal patient information on social media to protect their privacy and confidentiality.
References
Brown, C. G. (2016, June 9). Must-Read Social Media Advice For Nurses. Nurse . Retrieved from https://nurse.org/articles/nurses-social-media/
Hao, J., & Gao, B. (2017). Advantages and Disadvantages for Nurses of Using Social Media. Journal of Primary Health Care and General Practice, 1 (1), 1-3.
Ozair, F. F., Jamshed, N., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health records: A general overview. Perspectives in Clinical Research, 6 (2), 73-76. doi:10.4103/2229-3485.153997
Rye, H. M. (2018, May 17). Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation . Retrieved from Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation Website: https://engage.healthynursehealthynation.org/blogs/8/1507
Singh, S. P., Awani, R., Wal, A., & Tiwari, G. (2016, July 26). Effect of Social Media in Health Care: Uses, Risks, And Barriers. World Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 5 (7), 282-303.
