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Healthcare and Social Media
Nicole L. Gardner
Nursing Issues, Informatics and Technology
Liberty University
Author Note
Nicole Gardner
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Correspondence concerning this article should
be addressed to Nicole Gardner. Email: nlgardner@liberty.edu
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Introduction
Social media (SM) is a huge platform in today’s society. From older adults to young,
there is always an avenue that can be taken to connect to friends, family, employers, and
healthcare providers. The textbook defines it as internet based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allows for the creation and
exchange of user generated content (Nelson & Staggers, 2018). Several sites are available at any
given time which allows the opportunity to access, gain, and share information publicly and or
privately. Some of the mostly commonly used sites include Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat,
Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, to name a few. These sites have a variety of variations that makes
them favorites among today’s users. The use of SM has become a convenient way in which we
can be both entertained as well as informed. Using SM in the nursing profession can be utilized
for a variety of applications that promote both individual and corporate growth. This paper will
describe the types that are used in the healthcare setting and the impacts they portray.
Types of Social Media in Healthcare
Multiple types of SM are used in the healthcare setting. A few that I will discuss are
social networking, blogging, and video/image sharing. These listed are just a few of those that
can be used, and several of these can be used on multiple platforms from patient education to
workplace communication.
Social networking (SN) allows people to connect with others. Facebook is a popular SN
site and many healthcare institution and health organizations have a Facebook page. These pages
are not designed as a healthcare forum, people typically access them to gather basic information
about a facility. This information can include activities that the hospital is currently participating
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in, clinical trials that are starting or even advertising of what services the facility has to offer or is
best known for (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).
Blogging can be used by both healthcare facilities and physicians. Physicians may use
this platform to communicate with other providers as an informational source. They can write
down questions or thoughts on different medical subjects and get opinions and thoughts on those
topics from other physicians. Facilities may use this as a way for generating experience quotes
from patients or as a question and answer platform for patient’s to ask physician related
questions and it get answered by a medical professional (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).
Video and image sharing is probably the most beneficial use of social media. You Tube is
the most popular video-sharing website that is currently being used (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).
Most video-sharing sites are free and are accessible by a variety of electronic devices. This
platform can be used for education, marketing and branding. Educational videos on specific
disease symptoms and processes, instructional videos such as the proper insulin injection
procedure as well as new standards of practice for frontline staff are a few examples as to how
this platform can be used (Nelson & Staggers, 2018). I know in my role as a nurse, this platform
is used extensively in work application. All of our education videos are currently put on
YouTube so that they can be viewed both conveniently and repetitiously by any nursing staff.
This allows the same instructions be given and the video to conveniently be replayed in the
future, as a refresher.
Positive Impacts of Social Media
On a professional level, SM offers many benefits. Collaboration of ideas and/or
discussion of health issues can occur, cost-effective marketing, education, and showcasing
activities and accomplishments all are beneficial ways to use social media in the healthcare
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environment. Studies have shown that patient’s positively perceive that the use of SM
beneficially impacts their relationship with their healthcare providers. They felt empowered and
were more assertive with the option of its usage (Benetoli, Chen, & Aslani, 2018).
The American Nurses Association (ANA) created a set of principles to guide users when
using social media on a personal and professional level. These principles will allow nurses to
safeguard themselves, the profession, and their patients:
1. Nurses must not transmit or place online individually identifiable patient information.
2. Nurses must observe ethically prescribed professional patient-nurse boundaries.
3. Nurses should understand that patient’s, colleagues, organizations, and employers
may view postings.
4. Nurses should take advantage of privacy settings and seek to separate personal and
professional information online.
5. Nurses should bring content that could harm a patient’s privacy, rights, or welfare to
the attention of appropriate authorities.
6. Nurses should participate in developing organizational policies governing online
conduct.
(ANA Social Media Principles, n.d.)
Using these principles as the guide when posting on SM establish etiquette as well as
professional behavior. As nurses’ we need to think wisely and put our patient’s first when it
comes to their privacy prior to posting on SM.
Negative Impacts of Social Media
Along with positive impacts, SM has many negative impacts. Some include false
information, security risk, patient privacy and people trying to self-diagnose their symptoms.
With the sheer volume of medical information online, it is a huge risk and often extremely
difficult to know whether the information is reliable or not. People tend to believe everything
they see and read on the internet as being truthful. Mitigating false information needs to be a top
priority. Trethewey suggests that when researching medical information you should always look
for peer-reviewed journal articles and fact-checking is a must in order to verify validity (2020).
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Breaches of patient privacy is another major concern with the use of SM. A recent study
showed that data privacy and data security were rated highest in the most important ethical issues
that occur with SM (Rivera-Romero et al., 2020). Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPPA) is a federal law that sets privacy standards for the projection of
patient information’s and must be followed by providers, hospitals, and health plans. Disclosure
of individual identifiable health information can result in criminal charges (Rivera-Romero et al.,
2020).
Social Media Policy
It is vitally imperatively important that Healthcare organizations address the risks that
come along with the use of SM in their employee policies. Ennis-O-Connor & Mannion state
that a workplace policy should provide specific guidelines and recommendations for a
thoughtful, effective social media presence that adheres to platform-specific terms of service,
professional standards, and organizational policies (2019). The purpose of my facilities SM
policy is to provide guidelines for those who choose to participate in social networking activities
either on or off the job. It is very specific as to not engage in personal SM during compensable
work time as well as not engaging in any posts concerning coworkers which are false,
misleading, vulgar or threatening. It also goes into detail regarding the prohibition of disclosing
confidential information relating to the health information of patients (Beacon Health System,
2021). I personally believe that the policy issued by my employer is very specific in the
guidelines that it sets forth and provides for valuable guidance in order to create and post valued
based interactions.
My employer uses many platforms of SM including Facebook, Workplace by Facebook
and Instagram. Many of these platforms are used for marketing to generate additional clientele.
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Facebook, can also efficiently and effectively be used as a communication platform for specific
departments. Each department sets up a private group on Facebook and this becomes a
convenient way to communicate with staff members and provide education in mass publication.
Workplace by Facebook is similar to Facebook but this application is monitored by technology
security through your individual employer. Workplace by Facebook offers a more private
approach. We are currently in the process of dismantling individual department units on
Facebook pages and are strictly going to Workplace because of the additional security
monitoring critically important to hospital settings.
Conclusion
Due to the fact that SM plays such an important role in our everyday lives, both in a
personal setting as well as professional levels, it would be difficult to function without it.
The majority of time individuals spend on SM is for personal uses, most frequently being used to
connect families and friends together, but healthcare providers are using it professionally, as a
platform to further education, improve career development and connect with patients thus
enhancing overall trust . By having SM as an option, patients are empowered to be involved in
their care and access additional information about their health history; they can also develop a
community of support that promotes patient health care. As patients take an active role in
seeking out healthcare information, patients need to aware that they should never share personal
information on website they find when “surfing” for information. With the benefits of SM, risks
come as well. Healthcare facilities, staff, as well as patients, each user needs to take
responsibility for the security of any information that is being supplied, both for the hospital
information as well as the staff and patient personal information.
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As a Christian in the nursing profession, there are a couple of verses that come to mind
when applying and using SM both personally and professionally. The first is Proverbs 1:7, “The
fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” and
Romans 12: 2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and
perfect” (NIV).
Wisdom comes from God, using discernment is crucial when posting on SM. First of all
I need to make sure that the posts I submit are both respectful and truthful, using Godly wisdom.
I also need to remember this world is often evil and unkind; I need to glorify God at all times.
When I am ready to hit the “send” button, I need to pause, reread and ask myself when someone
is currently or years in the future reading this post, would it or could it be offensive.
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References
ANA Social Media Principles. (n.d.). ANA. https://www.nursingworld.org/social/
Beacon Health System. (2021). Social Media. Elkhart, IN.
Benetoli, A., Chen, T F., & Aslani, O. (2018). How patients; use of social media impacts their
interactions with healthcare professionals. Patient Education and Counseling, 101(3),
439-444. https://doi.com/10.1016/j.pec.2017.08.015
Ennis-O-Connor, M., & Mannion, R. (2019). Social media networks and leadership ethics in
healthcare. Healthcare Management Forum, 22(3), 145-148.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0840470419893773
Rivera-Romero, O., Konstantinidis, S., Denecke, K., Gabarrón, E., Petersen, C., Househ, M.,
Merolli, M., & Mayer, M. Á. (2020). Ethical considerations for participatory health
through social media: Healthcare workforce and policy maker perspectives. Yearbook of
Medical Informatics, 29(1), 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1701981
Nelson, R. & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics: an interprofessional approach (2nd ed.).
St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
The Holy Bible: New international version. (2011). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Trethewey, S. P. (2020). Strategies to combat medical misinformation on social media.
Postgraduate Medical Journal, 96(1131), 4-6. https://doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-
2019-137201
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