Social Media in Contemporary Healthcare

Risks and Benefits of using Social Media in Contemporary Healthcare

Introduction

Social media usage in the healthcare industry has been a subject of much debate over the past few decades. As a term, “social media” may be described as a set of powerful online platforms and applications that people can use to create, discuss, and share content like video clips, images, and personal experiences. The public participation rate in social media has increased tremendously over the past decade. According to Hao and Gao (2017), close to 87 per cent of Australians access and use the Internet daily. Social media tools can be used to enhance education or professional networking, patient education, public health programs, and patient care. However, if not used responsibly, they may present potential risks to healthcare professionals and patients such as privacy breaches and sharing of inappropriate information (Singh et al., 2016). The present report will examine the context of different social platforms and their usage in contemporary healthcare. Furthermore, it will expound on the advantages and risks associated with using social media tools on communities, healthcare seekers, and healthcare professionals.

Context

Social Media Platforms

Various medically-focused professional communities have been developed in the healthcare sector with the evolution of social networking. The networks are, in most cases, private and protected from outsiders such as members of other professions and the lay public (Alsughayr, 2015). The most common social media platforms used by health care practitioners have been shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Examples of social media sites

Purpose	Platform	Example
Connecting with colleagues, Discussions, Opinions, and videos	Blogs	Clinical Cases Blog, WordPress, and Tumblr
	Media sharing-sites	YouTube, The Doctor’s Channel, and Microsoft Zoom
Posting brief messages and updates and facilitating discussions	Microblogs and apps	Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram
Referencing, adding or editing drug information, and generating the content	Wikis	Wikipedia, RxWiki, and Medpedia
Interacting through virtual representations, medical education, surgical simulation, psychiatric treatment, and epidemiology simulation	Multi-User Virtual Environments	Second Life, CDC education centre, CliniSpace, OpenSim, and InWOrld Solutions

Reasons to Engage Social Media

There are numerous ways healthcare specialists are using online networking platforms to improve their services and provide patients with high quality and accurate medical data. The top ways entail collecting and disseminating information, training medical personnel, communicating during a crisis, and providing updates on medical procedures (Pizzuti et al., 2020). Social media platforms are intended to provide people with the ability to interact with others and access information quickly. Healthcare providers use these websites and tools to share data with patients and colleagues. Social media can also be used to introduce new doctors, answer questions on different topics, deliver generic post-and pre-operative care information, and offer patients with practice updates.

Another way healthcare providers can use social media is to evaluate their competitors and determine the overall patient satisfaction with their services. Besides, some healthcare professionals have started using social media channels such as Zoom and Twitter to train their staff (Pizzuti et al., 2020). During the presentation, trainees may be encouraged to use Twitter hashtags or join particular groups to engage each other in making the training process more interactive and enjoyable. Although it may seem controversial, there has been an increase in the number of surgeons and doctors giving updates from operating rooms. Through social media outlets such as Twitter, healthcare practitioners can deliver up-to-date information to fellow doctors, curious individuals, and medical students during procedures.

Finally, healthcare professionals have used social media during crisis times to offer minute-by-minute updates to consumers. Through social media, healthcare institutions can receive timely updates on some aspects of care such as operation status, access to emergency rooms, and hospital capacity (Hazzam & Lahrech, 2018). For instance, As the Covid-19 situation continues to develop, people have turned to government health officials for instructions and the latest information. Various professionals, healthcare organizations such as the World Health Organization, and government health officials have used online networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to educate the public concerning the health and symptoms of the disease, safety measures, drug updates, and policy changes.

Professional Guidelines

When using various social media platforms to share information, registered nurses should be aware of their professional obligations and other applicable rules like privacy legislation. Where relevant, the NMBA (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia) may assess whether a person’s social media use raises concerns about their fitness to hold their registration. Nurses should take care when sharing information, including photos or comments, to avoid inadvertently disclosing patient information. According to NMBA (2020), nurses have legal and ethical responsibilities to protect the privacy of individuals receiving and requiring care. This entails treating information obtained in the course of the relationship between patients and nurses as confidential and restricting the utilization of information collected for professional reasons only. They should consider the handling of personal information in conjunction with the Privacy Act 1998. Likewise, the views of a clinical nurse on clinical issues may be influential (Medway, Sweet, & Müller, 2020). Thus, comments in social media that promote or reflect personal views about medical issues may make a patient develop feelings of embarrassment and intimidation or affect an individual’s social or cultural safety.

Risks

Political

Social media can influence policymakers by shaping public opinion. Political disengagement in different contexts, including health, has emerged as a severe challenge in many countries around the globe (Charalambous, 2019). It causes a misalignment between the policymakers’ expectations and those of the public. When this happens, the policy users can resort to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the implemented policies. The distribution of unsatisfactory and misleading information through social media may make citizens hold wrong beliefs about some health issues and policies (Charalambous, 2019). For instance, when Brazil launched a mass campaign to immunize 95 per cent of its residents in particular municipalities that were directly affected by Yellow Fever in 2018, some people spread misleading information on WhatsApp that the vaccine was dangerous, claiming that it caused the death of a university student. The fake news left some Brazilians, believing that the vaccine was aimed at reducing the population. Such speculations increase pessimistic attitudes among the public, making them reluctant to accept specific health policies.

Legal

Concerns regarding social media use by registered nurses frequently centre on the possible adverse repercussions of a patient confidentiality breach. Such infractions can expose a medical practitioner and healthcare firms to liability under the Australian privacy laws and the NMBA (Scruth et al., 2015). The violation may be inadvertent or intentional and can take place in various ways. For instance, nurses can post videos or photos of patients on social media without their consent. Social media misuse can have long-lasting implications.  Nurses are obliged to adhere to particular professional standards and codes of conduct when they use social media. However, many healthcare specialists never realize that whatever they post may be considered a patient privacy breach. A study by Tuckett and Turner (2016) revealed that 28 per cent of nurses did not understand the policies that govern social media usage in their fields of work.  Registered nurses need to understand the severe consequences of posting inappropriate information on social media. AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) published social media policies for practising nurses in 2014. Similarly, the Nursing and Midwifery Federation of Australia (ANMF) also released particular online networking protocols to help nurses to understand their professional obligations.

Social

Cyberbullying may cause significant psychological and emotional distress to the victims. Bullying is most of the times considered a criminal justice or educational problem, although it represents a crucial public challenge (Moreno & Vaillancourt, 2017). For instance, in 2017, a couple of workers at SweetGrass Court Assisted Living, located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, were seen verbally assaulting their patients in a video posted on Snapchat. One of the employees, a 25-year-old lady, was arrested and charged with cyberbullying. She was booked and given a 10000 U.S. dollar bond the same day. The suspect and her colleagues were fired from the institution in March the same year after the video of themselves verbally abusing two Alzheimer’s patients was circulated on social media. This case is a replica of many cases of cyberbullying experienced by patients and nurses in the healthcare sector.

Nurses should understand that harassment and bullying relating to their workplace or practice is not tolerated or acceptable and that it may have implications on their registration in cases where it affects public safety. The codes of nursing practice outlined by NMBA (2020) requires nurses to recognize that bullying or harassment may assume different forms including physical abuse, racism, verbal, abuse, violence, aggression, discrimination, and intimidation directed toward colleagues or other people. Another risk associated with social media on healthcare practice is interruptions and disruptions during working hours. Nurses work in complicated environments which are vulnerable to disruptions by social media. Many studies have associated modern technology such as smartphones with distractions among nurses while providing care. Piscotty et al. (2015) unveiled that nurses who are disturbed by social media messages may introduce errors in medical administration and expose their patients to severe injuries, health complications, and even death.

Benefits Associated with Social Media

Support Networks

Social networking can benefit healthcare systems in different ways. It provides healthcare practitioners with applications for information sharing, debating health practice issues, communicating with people, and promoting desirable healthcare behaviours (Hao & Gao, 2017). Physicians may use social media to collaborate with colleagues. It provides healthcare professionals with opportunities to interact with peers and colleagues. For instance, it can connect healthcare practitioners from underdeveloped countries with their colleagues from advanced locations, allowing them to stream surgical procedures, ask questions, and suggest solutions to various challenges via online apps and websites. Physicians may also create internet-based forums to discuss issues related to healthcare and pose questions to colleagues with similar needs. They can consult and share ideas with different communities and government agencies and acquire up-to-date clinical knowledge.  Organizations, like WHO, have used social media to keep people informed during disease outbreaks and disasters (Gorea, Gorea, & Gorea, 2016). For instance, the WHO used Twitter during the H1N1 (Influenza A) pandemic to inform the public concerning control measures and availability of vaccines.  The institution, as well as the Australian government, are currently using various social media sites to inform people concerning the spread, statistics, dangers, and control measures of Covid-19.

Professional Nurse

Continuous professional development is a must for all registered nurses in Australia. Specifically, AHPRA regulates the practice of fifteen professional organizations, whose members are needed to pursue CPD annually (Kitching et al., 2015). Each profession has its codes, guidelines, policies, and standards that describe the prerequisites for maintaining registration. Social media can act as a mode of learning and professional growth for nurses. The efficient communication capabilities availed by this tool may be used in delivering professional training. The NMBA requires registered nurses to obtain 20 CPD points yearly to maintain their registration status (Hao & Gao, 2017).  It is estimated that about 29 per cent of the Australian population live in remote and rural areas. Nurses from these remote regions can use social networking channels to access online courses and update their registration status despite the unique challenges they face caused by their geographic isolation. Social media also influences the nursing education experience. According to Hao and Gao (2017), more than half of nursing institutions use social media to educate their learners. Lecturers can use some platforms like YouTube to demonstrate concepts in nursing classes.

Improving Patient Outcomes

Medical practitioners can use online platforms to connect with patients and educate them on healthcare. Likewise, patients may participate in online meetings, receive support from professionals, and monitor their progress with medication through online media (Panahi, Watson, & Partridge, 2016). As a crucial link between healthcare systems and patients, nurses must provide accurate health information to the patients and their families (NMBA, 2020). For instance, nurses may develop discussion forums for specific diseases for multiple patients or people with similar conditions. They can provide evidence-based information and efficient communication through these forums to improve the overall health of their patients. Patients can also share their experiences by joining the discussions and getting real-time answers to their concerns. Facebook reminders can be used to illustrate the significance of social media in educating patients. Using this tool, patients can receive personalized reminders or message alerts from their nurses via Facebook.

Communication

Healthcare providers can use social media to participate in internet-based communities, network, listen to senior professionals, and communicate with patients and colleagues about particular health conditions. Social media use by pharmacists also focuses mainly on communication with peers (Sims et al., 2016). Social networking sites used for professional networking are, in most cases, solely accessible by people within specific professions. Clinical discussions and topics on these platforms address various subjects like career strategies, practice management, and biostatistics. They can also avail a supportive environment for registered nurses who subspecialize. Additionally, crowdsourcing is an example of professional networking among registered nurses, which encompasses harnessing the capabilities of a community to collect information or solve health problems (Sims et al., 2016). Similarly, social media platforms may be useful in allowing healthcare providers from marginalized areas or developing countries to communicate with and consult their colleagues from advanced regions. For instance, physicians can stream surgical procedures through the Internet and allow colleagues to ask questions through Twitter and get them answered in real-time.

Conclusion

The present report has provided a brief assessment of social media as a context and proceeded to examine some examples of social media platforms used by healthcare providers, patients, and members of the public both in Australia and abroad. Furthermore, the report has discussed the regulations proposed by NMBA to govern the conduct of registered nurses when using social media. The report has classified social media as a vital tool that can be used in communication, improving patient outcomes, and professional networking and collaboration. Nonetheless, the report has expounded on the risks associated with social media such as privacy violations, cyberbullying, and fake news. The limitations have been severed into three groups: social, political, and legal issues.

References

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