Ethical Issues In Social Media

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In the last few years social media and technological tools have become a significant part of communication and their popularity has expended to the all areas of our life. The youngest generation of "always on," those who are always connected, post, like, comment, and provide information about every aspect of their life (Imaging the Internet, 2012). This phenomenon, has expanded also into professional lives, business, and health care environments (Randolph, 2012). Undoubtedly social networking like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or many different blogs are an indispensable part of our reality, however as the most popular modern communication tools are also not free from abuses and carry some ethical issues. A proper use of social …show more content…

Nowadays information become an irrefutable asset. It can be shared globally in seconds, exchanged instantly, and available for everyone. However, rapid and global access to information can also be a source of many disadvantages or even cause harm if it is used inappropriately. According to the indication of The American Nurses Association, nurses, as a part of healthcare team, are obligated to “know current standard of nursing practice and changing issues” (Henderson & Dahnke, 2015). Using social media in nursing practice fits into the global trend of being abreast with all innovations and information associated with patient’s care, and became a part of nurses’ scope of practice. Even though social media and technological tools are valuable sources of information necessary in patient’s education, they can also pose challenges related to breaching of patient’s confidentiality and privacy. According to Randolph (2012), revealing details of the patient’s treatment and exposing patient’s information occur usually because personal and professional boundaries are often wrongly interpreted by health care providers. This kind of unprofessional behavior leads to violation of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA) ( Randolph, 2012). Nurses have to be aware of the consequences of inappropriate sharing of information and need to use wise judgment whether a particular information should be posted on social

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