Overreacting?

Nurses Relations

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.

So I work in an ER and a coworker helped me out by discharging a pt for me. She later said how she thought he was cute, nice, funny, etc. Well we were looking at our hospitals facebook page and saw that he had "checked in" and posted some pics of himself in the ER. She ended up sending him a note on fb saying she saw him on the fb page and was hoping he was feeling better, that it was a pleasure meeting him and his family cause they brightened her day and to take care.

Now is this icky, or is it the equivalent of a thank you note but just in a different media? I maybe just an old fuddy duddy.

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I think it's weird, but hey - FB is apparently making life weirder by the minute.

(And I don't know if I would've done that just because I'd be leaving myself open for interpretation by the facility. I don't even FRIEND my workplace, much less check out their page!)

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Okay what is with this trend of everyone "checking" into the ER or urgent care? And now you say people are taking pictures of their brief stay in the ER? Sorry this is nuts!

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiology..

That's not against any rules somehow? I guess he was asking for it though. I think your coworker could have been more professional. It makes the hospital look bad.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
That's not against any rules somehow? I guess he was asking for it though. I think your coworker could have been more professional. It makes the hospital look bad.

Yeah that was my thought. Luckily it's not like she hit on him, which I've heard of nurses doing, everything she said was very nice and polite. I've even heard of some nurses getting pts phone numbers and texting them!!

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.

And I think it would be only against policy if she had used his pt info to track him down. But since it was on a public fb page....

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It is rare that hospitals still have social media pages, as posting pictures can open all sorts of HIPAA issues. Another common policy is that no member of the care team can take pics of patients for them. The policy in my facility is no personal pictures, period. It took one nurse to have had a picture taken with another patient (by a patient on their way to the bathroom and "couldn't resist" --in a not so delicate position, and cameras/use of phones is strictly prohibited. I can see this being a HUGE issue if it was all done on personal social media pages, however, this was a public hospital page, and apparently not at a privacy setting that allows no postings by followers of the page. Which is outrageous.

No matter how well meaning, the pictures should be taken down from the hospital page. They could be considered inappropriate. Also, anyone could say "that nurse took my picture and put it on the hospital's facebook!!" It COULD happen. Privacy issues abound.

It crosses a huge professional boundry to exchange phone numbers and text messages with patients. Unless there's a really, really loose policy on follow up phone calls (which I don't think exist in ER's) it is just going to take one patient to say that "nurse so and so took my number off my information and is now harrassing me" to cause an uproar.

Management is going to be all over those pictures. If they are not, I would be surprised.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
It is rare that hospitals still have social media pages, as posting pictures can open all sorts of HIPAA issues. Another common policy is that no member of the care team can take pics of patients for them. The policy in my facility is no personal pictures, period. It took one nurse to have had a picture taken with another patient (by a patient on their way to the bathroom and "couldn't resist" --in a not so delicate position, and cameras/use of phones is strictly prohibited. I can see this being a HUGE issue if it was all done on personal social media pages, however, this was a public hospital page, and apparently not at a privacy setting that allows no postings by followers of the page. Which is outrageous.

No matter how well meaning, the pictures should be taken down from the hospital page. They could be considered inappropriate. Also, anyone could say "that nurse took my picture and put it on the hospital's facebook!!" It COULD happen. Privacy issues abound.

It crosses a huge professional boundry to exchange phone numbers and text messages with patients. Unless there's a really, really loose policy on follow up phone calls (which I don't think exist in ER's) it is just going to take one patient to say that "nurse so and so took my number off my information and is now harrassing me" to cause an uproar.

Management is going to be all over those pictures. If they are not, I would be surprised.

The pt took a pic of himself and posted it on his page but tagged the hospital in the post. My coworker sent him a private message saying she hoped he was feeling better.

My other examples were stuff I heard either on here or reddit, I can't remember.

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I don't know how I would feel about this. I'm a newbie, and thank you notes to patients are a weird concept to me. I've only ever worked for one hospital, and this just isn't in our culture. I guess in theory this would just be a new, high-tech way of conveying the same message. The issue here, of course, is that she had to use her facebook account to contact the patient, and presumably she has personal information/pictures on her facebook account. That has the potential to open up a can of worms even if she doesn't have anything unprofessional on it.

Now, had she "friended" the patient? Totally, unquestionably inappropriate.

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This should be brought to risk management. The very nature of patient privacy is such that a social media page is in direct opposition to that.

Regardless, your friend stepped over a boundry when private messaging this patient. It is always good to remember no matter how charming and nice and funny a patient is, the ER is not a match.com meetup. And call me jaded (haha play on words there) but if a care nurse is private messaging the nice, cute funny...and all the other adjectives this patient was described as... the motivation was perhaps not "gee whiz how are you" stuff.

One nurse I know got fired after a person took a picture of her caring for a family member and posted it, and tagged it, and comments not very nice about the hospital were made by others who received the tagged photo. (and tagging pictures sends it to 500 friends and 500 friends friends and so on and so on). Nurse had no control over that, however, lost her job anyways. Still another who was in a managerial position and contacted a patient (after misread "signals"--whatever that means) and the patient flipped out and the nurse was no longer a manager. Patients have lives outside of the hospital, and as nurses we should as well. That doesn't include getting personal with patients. Even if your friend finds herself face to face with an irate sister, mother, girlfriend, fiance, wife or obsessed ex. What happens in the ER stays in the ER. Good lesson learned.

Gone are the days that people talk about patients in the hospital with the best of intentions, give them a little jingle to see how they are. Unless you are the follow up person after discharge, and then that is usually pretty scripted.

Remember your professional boundries, that they are patients and not friends (and sometimes friends are patients, but story for another thread).

Once any hospital administration realized the extent that a social media page can travel with tagging and posting and commenting they may have no choice but to shut it down. And I don't know about you, but I don't want anyone posting pictures that may include me--my work life is my work life, my personal life and social media my own.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
I don't know how I would feel about this. I'm a newbie, and thank you notes to patients are a weird concept to me. I've only ever worked for one hospital, and this just isn't in our culture. I guess in theory this would just be a new, high-tech way of conveying the same message. The issue here, of course, is that she had to use her facebook account to contact the patient, and presumably she has personal information/pictures on her facebook account. That has the potential to open up a can of worms even if she doesn't have anything unprofessional on it.

Now, had she "friended" the patient? Totally, unquestionably inappropriate.

Nope she hasn't friended him, as far as I know. But with me telling her this was icky she may not tell me if she did.

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.

The pt took a self portrait, and posted it on his page. My coworker didn't take, post, or get tagged in any photo.

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