Nursing Education 2.0:The Need for Social Media Policies for Schools of Nursing

Abstract

ONE ISSUE DISCUSSED AT THE MASSIVE HEALTHCARE INFORMATION AND SYSTEMS SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING IN FEBRUARY WAS THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN HEALTH CARE. A funny video introduced at the meeting, starring Phil Baumann, RN, is titled LOL - Hospital Social Media and Lack of Social Media Policy. I suggest you check it out. It is online at http://healthissocial.com/healthcare-social-media/hospital-social-mediapolicy/. About a week after the conference, I received the latest issue of Educause Review, with an article on the need for student social media policies. Given this convergence and with the fresh on my mind, it seemed clear that it is time to learn more about social media policies. Did you miss the placenta incident? If so, here, briefly, is the story. Four nursing students posted a picture of themselves, with a placenta, on Facebook and were expelled from the nursing program. Suing the college for reinstatement, one student stated that instructor had given implicit permission to post the photos and that the college had violated due-process rights in dismissing her (Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2, 2011). On January 6, the Chronicle reported that the judge stated the key issue in the case was the student's belief she had permission from instructor and that the college had not established that the students' action was a clear violation of professional conduct. This was not the first incident of unprofessional behavior on social media sites, and the judge's ruling was a wake-up call for higher education and health care. Starting my quest with a literature search, I found a study by Thompson and colleagues (2011) that analyzed the legal and ethical issues related to health information on social networking sites. Thompson's research team examined Facebook pages of 2007 and 2009 medical students to identify potential violations of protected health information such as portrayals of people, names, dates, or descriptions of procedures. The study had some interesting findings. First, the number of medical students and residents with Facebook profiles increased from 44 percent in 2007 to 84 percent in 2009. Second, more students and residents in 2009 made their profiles private. Third, the potential violations were not text, but photos of clinicians providing care, in particular for patients while on a medical mission. The study concluded that although medical education had made great strides in teaching patient privacy, there was no education that adequately impressed upon students and residents that online social networking sites and blogs are, in essence, broad communities with a public audience. On my mission to examine how higher education and health care were addressing the issue of social media policies, I noted that my institution, the University of Colorado, does not have specific policies in place, just guidelines for using information technologies, such as acceptable use and privacy. In conversations with colleagues, we agreed that we must address the issue before something happens at our school, landing me on still another task force at the College of Nursing! My first stop in my search for literature was the Educause website (www.educause.edu). A search revealed several publications, presentations, and social media policies posted by universities (www.educause.edu/node/645/tid/36576?time=1300123040). Mitrano, director of IT policy at the Educause/Cornell Institute for Computer Policy and Law (2006), offers an excellent overview of the issues related to social networking from the perspective of policy and law. Among the other presentations on the site, I particularly liked the comprehensive nature of Duke University's policy. My next journey was an examination of social media policies in health care institutions. It is important that, as our students go to their clinical sites, they recognize that agencies may have specifc social media policies. …