Nurses and Social Media

Gayann Taylor

Bow Valley College

CSC1040: Information Literacy and Technology Essentials

Instructor Sonya Davis

January 30th 2022

Nurses and Social Media

Summary of the Scenario

The scenario selected for this assignment is scenario 1, which discusses about Bob, a licensed practical/vocational (LPN/VN) nurse for the last 20 years. In this scenario, Bob takes a photo of a resident after getting consent from the brother since the resident could not offer her consent due to her mental and physical condition. Bob shared the photo with a former colleague during their discussion at a local bar. Bob’s employment was terminated when the group home learned about the situation and the BON imposed disciplinary action. This disciplinary action required him to complete education on privacy and confidentiality, ethics and professional boundaries.

Impact of the nurse’s actions

Bob’s action to share the resident’s photos with his friend may affect all the parties involved in the scenario. Firstly, Bob’s individual nursing career may be affected in the future due to the disclosure of confidential information (ANA, 2011). Bob may find it hard to get employed by another healthcare organization. He may also get sued by the resident’s family when they learn that he has shared the photo with a person working in another healthcare organization (NCSBN 2011). On the other hand, the group home may also be affected since it has to fire one of its experienced nurses. Additionally, the public’s trust in nurses in the group home can be compromised when they learn that a nurse in the organization has disclosed the resident’s confidential information (ANA, 2011).

Guidelines Violated

From the scenario, it is clear that Bob did not consider the guidelines offered to help nurses create awareness and caution in order to avoid disclosure of patients’ confidential or private information. One of the guidelines prohibits nurses from taking photos or videos using their personal devices. This guideline was violated by Bob, who took photos of the resident using a personal phone. Additionally, Bob provided sufficient details regarding the patient to a person who is not a member of the healthcare team, which is against the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which intends to safeguard the privacy of the patient (NCSBN 2011).

References

ANA. (2011). Fact sheet: Navigating the world of social media. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/~4af5ec/globalassets/docs/ana/ethics/fact_sheet_-_navigating_the_world_of_social_media_web.pdf

NCSBN. (2011). White paper: A nurse’s guide to the use of social media. Retrieved from https://www.ncsbn.org/Social_Media.pdf