In today’s digital world, whether we want to or not, and even if we know it or not, we are online. It becomes imperative that clinicians control what is said about them and they know how to conduct themselves in an increasingly public online forum. In this article, I want to talk about what’s happening and in a future article; I’ll discuss ways in which you can have more control of your own online identity and maintain the best practices for professional online conduct.
In the March 21, 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), a research letter by Dr. Greysen, et al, discussed findings of a small study they conducted in partnership with the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) looking at physician (MD/DO) conduct online. They found several violations which resulted in disciplinary actions by state medical boards including license restrictions, monetary fines, suspension and revocation of licenses to name a few.
Violations in the above study pointed to inappropriate patient communication online; online misrepresentation of credentials; use of the internet for inappropriate practice; failure to reveal conflicts of interest online; derogatory patient remarks; violations of patient confidentiality and depiction of intoxication and discriminatory language or practices.
Boards of medicine were alerted to these problems in a variety of ways, most commonly by patients and their families.
My question is: How well would we as Advanced Practice Clinicians (APNs and Pas) do in such a study? While we don’t have such a study (yet), based on what I’ve seen and what my colleagues tell me they’ve seen, I’m not sure we are doing much better.
I encourage you to take a look at your online behaviors in social media, blogging and video. Here are some suggestions that may help you assess your own risk for less than professional activity:
1. Assume that everything you do – especially in social media – is public and can be seen by patients, judges, the board of nursing and your grandmother.
2. Ask yourself if you want any of these people to see that photo you posted, or should be hearing your discussion of a case or even a staff issue?
3. Think it through at least 3 times (or more) before you post anything or respond to someone’s post.
4. Never post in anger or frustration until you’ve thought it through (see #3) or at least counted to 25 (forget 10…at least 25).
5. And it’s worth repeating…assume everything online is public and can be found.
This is a topic that is worthy of a long discussion. Please share your thoughts below and how you might re-look at your participation in the online world and maintaining professional online conduct.
© 2012 Barbara C. Phillips, NP