As a Human Development and Family Sciences major, wanting to pursue a career in Nursing, I haven’t ever thought about how nurses use media. When researching, I found two websites, http://everynurse.org/nurses-using-social-media/, and https://www.ncsbn.org/Social_Media.pdf, that outline how nurses should and should not be using media in their career field.

Nurses can utilize social media by promoting the profession to educate the public. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Discussion Groups and RSS Feeds are all social media outlets that allow nurses to educate the public on their profession. Blogging is a way for nurses to become experts on their career by reading input from other bloggers in their career field and expressing their own feelings on their profession. Twitter and Facebook are quick and easy ways for maintaining communication with people. For example, if someone has an emergency question a nurse can quickly respond to help the person in need or if someone has a question about some medicine a nurse can quickly respond. YouTube is a way for the public to better understand the healthcare and their medical needs. Discussion Groups and RSS Feeds are a way for nurses to connect with other nurses to provide support and encouragement to other healthcare professionals. I didn’t realize before that nurses use these social media devices to help educate the public in their career field.

Nurses must be extremely careful when using social media to not violate the laws regarding patient confidentiality and privacy. The website, https://www.ncsbn.org/Social_Media.pdf, briefly explains patient confidentiality and privacy and the consequences when violating the laws. Nurses should only be sharing patient information with the patient and their family and with other health care professions. Nurses shouldn’t use social media to complain about or comment on the health of patients, post photos of patients, rant about place of employment, blow off work related steam or use offensive language. When a nurse complains about a patient that could damage their own character. If a nurse were to complain about their place of employment that would give their place of employment a bad reputation. When using social media, you should always maintain professionalism. Inappropriate use of media can cause the nurse to face disciplinary action by BON (Board of Nursing), which can include reprimand or sanction, fines, or temporary or permanent loss of licensure. Some uses of media can violate the state and federal laws of patient confidentiality and privacy. A way to prevent any nurse from any of the previous consequences would be to not post about a patient on social media or about their place of employment.

Nurses use social media every day to improve their knowledge in their career field and to help educate the public. They must be extremely careful in their profession because violating one law through social media can cause your whole career to be gone. Nursing is a field that uses social media to encourage and support colleagues, and help and educate the public.