Do you "tell" Facebook where you work?

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Do you "tell" FB where you work?

    • 63
      Yes
    • 196
      No
    • 31
      I don't have a FB

290 members have participated

Of the nurses I know, some have their place of employment on their FB page and some do not.

I am just curious to see if you post your place of employment on your FB page and your reasoning behind your decision.

I'll start:

As a new grad, on the hunt for a job, I was originally thinking that the minute I finally become employed I am going to shout it to the world (meaning put it on FB). But then I got to thinking...is this really a good idea?

I have previously worked in healthcare (non-nursing) and even then I was hesitant about posting my place of employment on FB. I mean I did, but, this time feels different. I do not plan to post my future places of employment on FB.

I previously did not realize that anyone can find you (including patients) just by typing in your place of employment!

I have seen (I believe here on AN--maybe not--not sure) a story where a patient's family member/friend has attempted to friend the nurse on FB hoping to gain information about a patient.

Just seems a little risky IMO...

But I'm curious to hear others opinions and reasoning!

My Facebook profile has my name, hometown, and current city of residence. That's it.

None of my former or current employers are listed. None of my former or current schools are listed. Since I work at a corporation that owns a national chain of hospitals, I prefer the privacy because they have PR folks at the corporate headquarters who regularly search the internet for any mentions of the company name.

Wow, that is interesting to hear. Thanks for posting. I wonder how many other corporations & hospitals do this?

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Wow, that is interesting to hear. Thanks for posting. I wonder how many other corporations & hospitals do this?
All the ones I know of....never forget they are watching.
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Specializes in critical care.

I'm post bombing the thread. Forgive me!

I have one Facebook that I use. I post anything I care about. I tend to not complain on it. Complainers have been known to be deleted from my friend list. I'm not sure when Facebook became the place to complain incessantly but goodness it's frustrating. I have a few work people on my friend list. I think it's only 5? I don't talk about work. I may have some posts inspired by work, but they're more like PSAs. "Talk to your loved ones about advanced directives." Stuff like that.

I rarely get political or religious except for occasional things that promote peace and acceptance. I actually lost one "friend" over that, but I stand firmly in my peace-loving, tree-hugging says. :) Basically, though, I don't put anything on Facebook that I wouldn't feel proud of if questioned by a friend, family member, coworker or employer. Just because it's all set to private, doesn't mean people won't screenshot and gossip. So I only share what I don't mind being questioned about.

Now, related to this, there was a screen shot floating around Facebook on the anti-circumcision groups. A neonatal nurse described quite specifically her male patient load. She said the babies were so peaceful when she left her previous shift, but that they'd been circumcised and now this shift all they've done is cry and be inconsolable. I hope that nurse works at a giant hospital where no one could possibly know who those babies were. Where I live, those babies would be known because it's just that small. Talk about HIPAA violation.

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@ixchel, rn please, post away! I am loving all of these opinions...it's great to hear everyone's side and POV on this. I was so curious for so long (weird, I know) :geek:

Anyway, I think it's best to keep a peaceful FB page. I tend to get rid of complainers, preachers, and politicians as well. One thing that I think we can all agree on whether we choose to place our employer on our pages or not, is that we all seem to be cognizant of WHAT we post.

In the case of the screen shot floating around of the nurse's post, well, that was just silly--to put it nicely. I think a little common sense goes a long way when it comes to what you post online and getting in trouble.

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Specializes in Gerontology RN-BC and FNP MSN student.

I know of a story of a nurse who posted her blow - out Saturday night party pics on fb.....came to work the next morning and had to take a breath analyzer and tested positive for alcohol.... Needless to say she was fired and had to report to BON.

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I know of a story of a nurse who posted her blow - out Saturday night party pics on fb.....came to work the next morning and had to take a breath analyzer and tested positive for alcohol.... Needless to say she was fired and had to report to BON.

Oh, my. A perfect example on how posting too much of your personal life can get you in trouble.

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My page is completely unsearchable unless we have a common friend (you can't even search using my email address) and everything is private. I also don't use my last name, I go by first middle. Both are very common so typing it in the search bar would be a waste of time.

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Also, I haven't worked in healthcare yet (just got my LNA) but when I worked at a hotel (where we have confidentiality, but not at HIPAA standards) I listed my place of employment. We had a lot of long term guests who I was friends with while I worked, but I refused to accept friend requests until they were no longer guests. I would never friend a former or current patient/resident though. No way no how.

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Specializes in critical care.
I know of a story of a nurse who posted her blow - out Saturday night party pics on fb.....came to work the next morning and had to take a breath analyzer and tested positive for alcohol.... Needless to say she was fired and had to report to BON.

During our orientation, the CNO told a story of a nurse who was at a local, popular bar, partying quite wildly, dancing on the bar and putting on a show pole dancing. A shift shortly thereafter, a patient in her care had seen her and requested to not have her because he didn't want someone who behaves that way to be his nurse. Look - we all have loves outside of work and god knows with the stuff we see, we should let our hair down and enjoy our freedom away from the hospital. But on social media or in real life, the way we behave is noticed.

Anyway, that's an off-topic hijacking, but we should consider our face-to-face representation of ourselves just as carefully as our social media presence. Whether it's fair or not, people do judge.

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Also, I haven't worked in healthcare yet (just got my LNA) but when I worked at a hotel (where we have confidentiality, but not at HIPAA standards) I listed my place of employment. We had a lot of long term guests who I was friends with while I worked, but I refused to accept friend requests until they were no longer guests. I would never friend a former or current patient/resident though. No way no how.

I agree, I would never friend a former or current patient. I think it's important to keep things strictly professional. But that is just my opinion.

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During our orientation, the CNO told a story of a nurse who was at a local, popular bar, partying quite wildly, dancing on the bar and putting on a show pole dancing. A shift shortly thereafter, a patient in her care had seen her and requested to not have her because he didn't want someone who behaves that way to be his nurse. Look - we all have loves outside of work and god knows with the stuff we see, we should let our hair down and enjoy our freedom away from the hospital. But on social media or in real life, the way we behave is noticed.

Anyway, that's an off-topic hijacking, but we should consider our face-to-face representation of ourselves just as carefully as our social media presence. Whether it's fair or not, people do judge.

You bring up a very good and true point, though. You never know whose presence you are in when you are out in public. "That stranger over there" could easily be a future patient or even a future employer. :yes:

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I think that I am the only person in the world that doesn't have, and has never had, a Facebook account. It's not something that I am interested in. It's not just a privacy issue with me, but I just find the whole thing kind of silly and boring. I don't care to see a whole bunch of "selfies" of someone, or their latest vacation pics. It kind of reminds me of "back in the day", when folks would invite people over to their house and get out the "slide show" of their latest travel adventures, or some other boring thing. I never liked it then, so I doubt that I would now. From what I understand, folks post everything. From what they ate for breakfast to when they are going to bed, and everything in between. It's nothing that I would consider interesting. I love computers and everything that modern technology has to offer. I just don't understand the Facebook fascination. But, to each their own.

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