Navy hospital removes staffers for calling babies ‘mini Satan’s’ on social media. Parenting.
Elements of the policy
Former nurses, Allyson Thompson and Joanie Barrett did indeed behave inappropriately while handling the babies at Navy hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Their unfitting behavior which was revealed by Allyson`s friend Denisa Shellito was uncalled for and unprofessional (Finley, 2017). As a nurse, one is expected to treat patients with the highest level of respect regardless of their age, social or economic status. If a person is writing a hospital policy on smart phone and social media usage, there are a number of things that would be included in the policy as will be illustrated in this section.
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One of the elements that would be contained in this policy is that both professional and personal forms of communication should be separated. Whenever one is in the precincts of the healthcare facility, cell phone use should be minimized. In fact, restrictions should be made on mobile phone use in areas such as the surgical theater. Medical professionals are expected to offer undivided attention to each patient and should, therefore, put their personal issues aside when attentending to them.
Alternatively, the policy would have a requirement for smart phone and social media usage to be engaged only for professional issues. For example, engagement of health care sites such as UVA in a bid to access resources to use in assisting patients is a professional means through which social media can be used by physicians and nurses (Timothy, 2017). Also, each individual should have both professional and personal emails. The latter should not make any mention of their work life.
A policy restricting nurses from sharing their personal information with patients is also another significant element that one would expect to find. Work life should not in any way be associated with personal interactions. This would help to avoid situations whereby a nurse may end up being biased when offering their services to patients. Besides, nurses and medical professionals would be required not to post anything that is associated with their clinical life on social media sites where they communicate with other friends. Also, discussion of patients would also not be tolerated unless it occurs between professionals trying to come up with a way of assisting such a person.
Ethical and legal liabilities
One of the potential ethical and legal liabilities for the hospital is that they have the grounds to dismiss the nurses for ethical misconduct. The healthcare facility was justified to terminate the services of the workers who were involved in this particular incidence. Also, if need be, the hospital can choose to initiate legal proceedings on the nurses if the victims threaten to sue the facility. Besides, the two employees could be sued for defamation. Their actions caused a public uproar and the immense attention that this attracted was capable of causing people not to feel comfortable seeking the services being offered at the facility. This could be done especially if members of the public threaten to boycott services being rendered.
The employees can choose to offer an official and also public apology for their ethical misconduct and seek to be reinstated back to their work. Also, in case, there were no regulations that barred the workers from behaving in the manner that they did, they could be justified to sue the hospital for wrongful dismissal in an attempt to reclaim their previous employment positions.
In 2007, Harvard University rescinded admission to 10 students after reviewing their social media post.
The right of employers, current employers, and colleges to one`s social media post
There is no doubt that employers have the right to access one`s social media post. One of the strong arguments in this circumstance would be that, anything which a person chooses to display on a social media platform has no right to any form of privacy (Clark & Roberts, 2010). Other people get to see such posts and in a similar way, the employer is also justified to view them. It is apparent that no individual should end up posting something that they do not want other people to see. Some social media users may not be aware that despite the sites having privacy settings, a disclaimer exists stating that total privacy cannot in any way be guaranteed to the user. Besides, once someone makes a decision to post something, it ends up being hard to remove whatever they have posted.
Another reason why the employer is justified is because, in a scenario where they choose to ignore such checks, they may end up being accused of negligent hiring (Clark & Roberts, 2010). This occurs especially where they may end up hiring a person of questionable character who may end up soiling the company`s reputation. In such a scenario the people responsible for hiring such an individual may lose their jobs. Also, checking what has been posted by potential applicants or existing employees is something that ought to be discussed prior to hiring the individual. In such a case, they would have no reason to launch a complaint once their actions on social media are used to define they fate at work.
Making decisions based on One`s post
Employers and universities should make decisions based on one`s post. But even as they come to such conclusions, they have to define what terms such as inappropriate mean. For instance, the 10 students whose admission to Harvard University was revoked had inappropriate posts on their social media pages. The decision made would only be justifiable if the university had outlined categories for inappropriate posts. If this was not the case, then there were no grounds to restrict the entry of these applicants.
Correspondingly, the same applies to the work environment, if the employee has not defined such clauses, withdrawing applications or terminating employment would be unjustifiable (Clark & Roberts, 2010). Besides, it is also the duty of an individual to ensure that they select their friends wisely. For instance, one`s friend may choose to tag them with inappropriate content which may be a determinant factor leading them to miss out on an opportunity. In such a situation, the employer would still be warranted to make a decision based on such a post.
Also, social media posts reflect a person`s true character. This implies that whatever the employer sees reveals the true nature of the individual. The hiring party may be looking for someone with a specific character and it could be easy for the candidate to pretend or behave in a certain manner in order for them to get the employment opportunity. Later on, such an individual reverts to their unacceptable behavior which may end up causing problems within the organization. One can, therefore, observe why it is essential for the employers and universities to make decisions based on someone`s posts on social media.
Discuss the relationship between accreditation decisions, reimbursement, quality of care, informatics.
All of the above mentioned elements affect health care facilities and other institutions as well. Accreditation decisions for instance, are made based on whether a facility has complied with the set standards of care, and also finished addressing requirements pertaining to improvement of services ( Nelson & Staggers, 2016 ). Reimbursement, on the other hand, occurs in a scenario where one receives money for something they had already previously paid for ( Nelson & Staggers, 2016 ). A good example, in the healthcare context is the hospitals which render services to the patients and later seek to be reimbursed by insurance service providers or the government. Quality of care, pertains to the idealized attention offered to patients in healthcare facilities. Also, informatics relates to engineered systems whereby the structure of behaviors and interactions are studied ( Nelson & Staggers, 2016 ).
A relationship exists between accreditation and quality of care. For example, accreditation in surgical procedures, infection control and management of pain has been observed to improve the quality of care being offered to patients at healthcare facilities ( Chen, Rathore, Radford & Krumholz, 2003 ). This implies that facilities which have already received accreditations strive to excel by further offering specialized care and attention to others which is worthy of such qualification. Alternatively, those that have not yet met the required standards strive to do so in the best manner possible. In a study conducted on the impact of accreditation on quality care among 26 individuals, it was determined that accreditation improves the quality of care delivered to patients ( Chen et al., 2003 ). Based on this case, accreditation and quality of care are two dependent components which have a definitive relationship.
The relationship between the components further extends to a situation whereby, when a healthcare facility receives accreditation, high quality care is received. This in turn implies that such a hospital will end up serving more patients compared to one that has no accreditation because of the high level of services being offered to individuals. In turn, this translates to higher returns which necessitate the facility to seek for greater amounts of reimbursement from insurance service providers. It can, hence, be inferred that the components have a significant relationship which aligns them together. Without accreditation, the quality of service offered by the medical experts would not be sufficient for the patient (Nelson & Staggers, 2016) . If this occurs, the patient will be unwilling to seek services from such a facility and may, therefore, be forced to look for an institution with an accreditation since there is a great likelihood that there are higher quality services being offered in such a hospital.
Finally, with health informatics, there is no doubt that the quality of service rendered in hospitals will be undisputable. Informatics ensure that records pertaining to patients are maintained in the required manner. As a result, it becomes easy to manage the prescriptions of each individual patient. Currently, most facilities have adopted an electronic system for storing patient data ( Nelson & Staggers, 2016 ). Also such automation of records has managed to reduce cost which is an element of quality. In addition to this, there are less errors which are made since with good data storage, patients are in a position to acquire the appropriate medication. Also, it has become possible to enhance patient education by ensuring that that physician`s stipulations are followed, thus quality care becomes definite.
References
Clark, L. A., & Roberts, S. J. (2010). Employer’s use of social networking sites: A socially irresponsible practice. Journal of Business Ethics , 95 (4), 507-525.
Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2016). Health Informatics-E-Book: An Interprofessional Approach . Elsevier Health Sciences.
Chen, J., Rathore, S. S., Radford, M. J., & Krumholz, H. M. (2003). JCAHO accreditation and quality of care for acute myocardial infarction. Health Affairs , 22 (2), 243-254.
Timothy, M. W. (2017, May 15). Is Employer Monitoring of Employee Social Media Justified . Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employer-monitoring-employee-social-media-justified-timothy-m-wilday-2
Finley, T. (2017, Sept 20). Navy Hospital Removes Staffers for Calling Babies `Mini Satans` On Social Media . Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hospital-staff-post-images-of-black-newborns-dancing-to-rap-refer-to-them-as-satans_n_59c2cfede4b06f93538c2c03
