Risks and Benefits of Social Media in Contemporary Healthcare Report

This report delves into the multifaceted role of social media within contemporary healthcare, exploring both its advantages and disadvantages for healthcare professionals. The report begins with an introduction outlining the scope of social media use, followed by an analysis of various social media platforms and their applications. It then examines the professional guidelines, including NMBA guidelines, that govern social media use by healthcare workers. The main body of the report discusses the diverse ways healthcare workers utilize social media, such as sharing information, improving quality, training medical personnel, providing live updates, and communicating during crises. It also outlines the risks associated with social media, including legal, social, and political issues. Conversely, the report highlights the benefits, such as support networks, professional development for nurses, improved patient outcomes, and enhanced communication. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the need for responsible and informed social media practices within the healthcare sector. The report is supported by references to relevant literature.

Report Improving Health
Outcomes for Nursing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
The uses of social media by healthcare workers in contemporary healthcare.............................3
The professional guidelines for using social media.....................................................................4
Social media platforms................................................................................................................4
Reasons to engage social media..................................................................................................5
RISKS..............................................................................................................................................6
Legal issues..................................................................................................................................6
Social issues.................................................................................................................................6
Political issue...............................................................................................................................7
BENEFITS...................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The report will discuss about healthcare benefit of social media for the professionals that are
provided by social media by giving benefit of sharing the information and live updates. The
guidelines of the use of the social media by the professional will be discussed along with NMBA
(Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia) guidelines. In this report the social media platforms
with their use for the healthcare worker are given in a form of a table. The reasons to engage in
the social media are discussed. The risks and benefits related to the use of social media are
discussed.
MAIN BODY
The uses of social media by healthcare workers in contemporary healthcare
The health care workers are using the social media for various reasons such as:
Sharing information
The healthcare workers use the social media as a tool to share information through the websites
where they can share the information about the general flu shots and the advice on how to avoid
a cold (Merchant (2020).
Compare and improve the quality
The social media can be used by the health workers to compare and improve the quality of the
content posted by them. They can observe their competitors online and evaluate their practices
as well as the social media involvement, this helps them to improve their practices. This helps
in improving the customer service and the rate of responding to the patients on the social media.
Train medical personnel

Social media is being used for the training purposes by the health professionals. The trainees are
encouraged to get involved through the social media platform for the interactive and the
enjoyable learning.
Live updates
This use of the social media is controversial. The use of the social platforms is in the operating
rooms for providing the up to date information and the state during the procedures, to the
students and some doctors. Some people state this practice to be distracting for the doctor who
is operating. The argument is going on the educational value of this use.
Communicating in the time of crisis
At the time of crisis social media can be a life changing tool for the workers and the health care
professionals. The organizations can spread the information getting from the centers for
diseases control, to keep others updated.
The professional guidelines for using social media
The social media information is protected under the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act) complaint guidelines. Various security guidelines are set for protecting the
information on the social media channels from being misused. Social safeguards are used to
protect the social media post from going live that is against the policies of the social media. The
social networking policies are made clear to the employees. The discussion of the patients is
strictly prohibited even in general. The professional are allowed to communicate in general
about the condition as well as treatments. The professional are not allowed to practice the
medicine online by responding to the offline patients (Borgmann and et.al(2018).
NMBA (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia)
The guidelines encourage the professional to practice ethically in any situation. This also
creates awareness in the professionals for maintaining a standard during online interaction. This
helps the professionals at the healthcare to know about the obligations and the pitfalls while
using the social media platforms (Medway, Sweet and Müller(2021).

Social media platforms
The social media platforms can be used to:
 Provide the updates (Frank and Torphy(2019).
 Introduce new doctors in practice.
 Respond to various questions.
 Information about the pre- and post- operative care.
 The patients with the information that can be practiced itself.
Purpose Platform Example
For providing the updates on the
new technologies
Blog Tumbler
Give information and the
updates, gain more customers
Blog and articles Twitter
For posting the results of the
patients and other information
Pictures and videos Instagram
Share health tips and tricks Images Pinterest
Gain more customers and for
awareness as well as
encouragement, communicating
Posts Facebook
Reasons to engage social media
People worldwide use the social media for various reasons such as:
 To always stay in touch (Gardner and Allen (2019).
 The whole information of the time is provided on the social media so people keep a track
of the happening in the word through these platforms.
 To be up to date with the current news and affairs.
 To just spend their free time.

 For the general networking with the people around.
 To share relevant photos and videos of their interest.
 To research about new things.
 To meet new people.
RISKS
Legal issues
The use of social media has created new issues and the legal complexities. Many constitutional
rights are applied on the use of the social media such as freedom from search, freedom to
speech and the right to privacy. Various rights of the patient can be challenged under the use of
social media. The professional at the health care cannot share the information about the illness,
personal information or the medical condition without the consent of the patient itself. In case
the permission is taken by the patient, the permission when obtained is to be clearly mentioned
in the post on any platform. The disclaimers are to be used necessarily that the views shared in
the post are strictly of the professional posting it and none of the others. The law restricts the
professional form posting any legal discussion of current law cases as they are discover-able.
The privacy and as well as the security of the patient is the considered most important
when sharing the medical information on social media. The privacy setting needs to be used to
protect the information of the patient (Thoma and et.al, (2018).
The boundaries are to be made in accordance to maintain the standard of the
communication while communication online to protect the information getting spread on the
social media.
Social issues
The social risk of the social media for the health care professional is the risk of damage to
the professional image. The post from the professional that is irrelevant and unprofessional
impact the image of the professional as well as the harm the people following the professional
for their doubts and queries about the health issues. People on the social media make images of
the professional by their ideas, beliefs and values of posting and spreading the information. The
post can impact the follower for a long period. The perceptions of the people on social media can
be influenced by many factors of the professional such as the kind of photos being uploaded, the

comments and shares of the posts, organization and any personal detail that is uploaded by the
professional. The professional can also trap in the cyberbully (Smith, (2020).
Political issue
Serious problems are generating to the healthcare due to less engagement of the political
factors. This problem arises due to the decrease in the trust level of the policy makers and the
policy users because of social media. It is the responsibilities of the people involved in legislative
procedure to look forward to the interest of the people and policies according to that but when
the legislative person is not performing the duties effectively, this leads to the misalignment
between the policies and the public interest. This misalignment increases the political
disengagement to a higher level. The social media is molding the interest of the public in specific
topics and effecting the decision making of the policy making process (Hall, (2020).
BENEFITS
Support networks
The support networks on the social media have evolved the communities of medically focused
professional. The networks provided are private and protected for the general public and the non-
members. The physicians are gathered on a single social networking site to discuss about the
treatment options and the answer the queries from the peers for an expert advice. There are social
networking site where the physicians can exchange text and images regarding the complaints for
the health insurance portability and accountability. This helps them to care about the
crowdsourcing the information. There are many sites where the healthcare workers can connect
with the patients (De Serres and et.al, (2017).
Professional nurses
Both the individual and the nursing communities are welcomed on the social media with benefits
and support. They can write blog about their daily lives and the insight of the healthcare industry.
The nurses of all specialties are using twitter for sharing the little bits of information about their
profession, health breakthroughs, the problems faced by the healthcare and the history. The
nurses connect with the other nursing organization through the Facebook. Certain information is
shared via the videos on YouTube. They can provide the crucial information like the nursing
student life tips and nursing technologies to the needy.

Improving patient’s outcomes
The patients can benefit from the social media by getting access to the healthcare information.
The virtual communities can be joined by the patients and can also participate in the research
work. They can use the educational resources, get financial and moral support, along with tracing
their personal progress. The social media can help the patients with the chronic or rare diseases;
the physician can develop a messaging platform where they help the patients to act upon their
condition rather than implementing any advice that come across the internet. The patients are
connecting to the people having the same diseases through social media; this is providing them
with the suggestion, support, and information from the people with similar condition. They are
also forming groups that are helping the patients with raising the funds for the treatment
(Giustini and et.al, (2018).
Communication
The health care professional are using the social media for enhance the communicating process
with their patients. The physicians are interacting with patients online and providing them
education and monitoring the health of the patient. The professional are encouraging the patients
for the behavioral changes that can help then with the better results as well as increases
compliance. The use of the electronic communication has improved the health and the care
outcomes of the patient. The social media communication has been proved to be a positive
influence for the patients with the chronic diseases along with the physician’s advice (Malecki,
Keating and Safdar, (2021).
CONCLUSION
From the report it can be concluded that the social media can be used by the healthcare
workers for the benefit of themselves and the patients. The professionals can help the patients by
sharing the information but that too in being the restricted guidelines of the social media use.
Various social media platforms can be used by the health professional for spreading the
information. The risks and the benefits of the use of the social media are to be kept in mind while
sharing the information by the healthcare worker.

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