Do nurses have a responsibility to keep their Facebook professional?

Nurses Professionalism

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I am "Facebook friends" with a large number of my nursing peers. I am often quite surprised at the behavior I see exhibited by them in so public a place.

I see:

1. Lots and lots of foul language/inappropriate pics, etc.

2. Lots and lots of "oh, man, I'm so wasted right now...bout to go to the next bar!!!"

3. Lots and lots of TMI about relationships, affairs, drunkeness, fights, whatever.

On their FB profile, they have it proudly posted that they are "Registered Nurse at So-and-so Hospital", or "Proud PEDI Nurse!" or "School nurse at Ur Dum Akadimy".

I cringe sometimes when I see some of this stuff, and think to myself "what would their employer think?" or, "Hope they're not interviewing soon with a computer-adept manager".

I try to keep my social media as clean as I can, and don't flaunt any of my bad habits for the world to see.

But, what do you think? Do nurses have a responsibility to maintain a professional demeanor on their (supposedly) private social media sites?

Another possibility: Am I an old fart?

Dang! I thought I had myself pretty well disguised...
Lol!Lol!
Specializes in ER, progressive care.

I think so.

My Facebook is clean. I *am* friends with co-workers but all of us are friends and we get along great. There are some co-workers that I do not get along with at all and I know would backstab me in a heartbeat...I am not friends with them. I do not post anything about work unless it is something vague like, "we have such an awesome team!" or "glad that night is over and done with..." or something along those lines. I don't post raunchy pictures or statues or anything. I also do not have my employer listed on my page! Mine just says "works at Hospital." I used to have my employer but I removed it.

You would be surprised that employers actually do tap into their employee's Facebook. There is a way, even if it is private. That happened to a friend of mine...she posted something about work about how a patient fell and some other details, but no details pertaining to who the patient was. She got talked to by her manager and her manager said that posting about work is a fireable offense. My friend's Facebook is private, too!

Specializes in ICU.

This is just MY personal opinion and no one has to agree with it or like it...but I feel that so long as I don't put anything about my employer or coworkers, anything about my patients or their care, or anything that violates HIIPA, what I put on my facebook or twitter is my business. It doesnt matter if i get drunk every weekend, it doesn't matter what I tweet or put on facebook. That doesn't determine what kind of nurse I am and it doesn't have any baring on my professionalism. I'm a nurse for 36 hours a week. The rest of the time is mine to do with what I want.

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Moved to our Nursing and Professionalism forum.

See our thread: NSCBN: Social Media Guidelines for Nurses for advice from our regulatory and professional associations.

TOTALLY agree! I am very picky about my FB friends and I still spend time every morning going through and deleting what some folks consider "funny" pics and comments from other peoples threads that show up on my wall. Even though i didn't post it; I don't like it being on my wall. Been known to completely hide folks because of it.

Specializes in ER, Home Health, PCU, Med/Surg.

I have a fb page for my friends, and a separate one i keep mainly for family and peers. The friend one does not list my association with a hospital and i dont talk shop there at all. The friend page is heavily private. On a second note, I cannot imagine that it is ever appropriate to get "completely wasted" and certainly if it happened I would not be bragging about it either to my friends, family, or peers. I became a responsible adult when I chose a profession that requires respect and dignity of its members!

I try to be considerate of everyone who is on my friends list and will delete questionable content that others post on my wall or content that my kids can see. I will also delete "friends" who continually use foul language, post provocative images, or who are just plain downers.

My reputation among my children, family, close friends, and those who I interact with in the community mean more to me than letting not-as-important/not close people know how I spent my weekend.

Nothing wrong with standards.

Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

None of my nurse friends post like that yeah I think they should.

Specializes in CDI Supervisor; Formerly NICU.

Theres a nursing and professionalism forum? Huh, who knew?

Moved to our Nursing and Professionalism forum.See our thread: NSCBN: Social Media Guidelines for Nurses for advice from our regulatory and professional associations.

remove my comment please...

Theres a nursing and professionalism forum? Huh, who knew?

Surprised me.

When they're paying me for the hours I sit at home, or the hours I go out to eat, drink, dance, etc., then they can tell me what to put on my Facebook. I try not to get too crazy with it, but if someone has a problem with my "check-ins" then it's a company I don't wish to work for. And if anyone has a problem with their coworkers' posts I'd suggest hiding them from your news feed, or unfriending them altogether. With "friends" like those people who needs enemies?

Your posts (#48/#49) seem to contradict each other...in my opinion. How can you say that what you post is your own business when you previously mentioned you ratted someone else out??

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