BE CAREFUL on social networks

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There was another recent posting - thread now closed - by a nurse who got in trouble over a Facebook posting. I have some direct experience with this - as a union steward - and a fair amount of second hand knowledge. Here are a few basic things to keep in mind:

1. Your Facebook "friends" may very well not be your actual friends - in every case that I've dealt with, management became aware of the offending posting when a "friend" of the poster brought it to their attention. And your privacy settings are no protection.

2. You do not have rights of "free speech" related to your work - the First Amendment protects you against the government intruding on your free speech rights - it says nothing about your employer.

3. If you are not covered by a union contract, in most parts of the US you are an at will employee and can be fired for any reason or no reason - except for a very small number of protected reasons like your age or race.

4. If you post something that would make anyone reading it think they might not get good care at your hospital, that would almost always be a legitimate reason for action against you. Here are a few real life examples: "We were so understaffed it was scary" or "If another person comes into the ER just to get narcs, I might punch them out" or "I got so frustrated with one patient I wanted to take her call light away".

Yeah, we've all had feelings like that, and we might say them to a real friend face to face - but posting them online for all to see - and, no matter what your privacy settings are, it really is for all to see - is just foolish. Save those rants for your truly private conversations.

One last note: Labor law does protect concerted activity. So if your union has a Facebook page and you were having a discussion there about how to improve staffing at your hospital, a negative comment on staffing in that context would likely be protected by law - but the exact same comment in the context of just a general rant likely would not be.

So, be careful, be smart, don't cause yourself unneeded trouble for silly reasons.

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Specializes in ICU.

And for Pete's sake don't friend any of your patients or their family members! There was a nurse at my institution who was taking care of the same patient for a long time. She friended his family. She then posted one day on Facebook something to the effect of "My migraine was so bad today I have no idea how I made it through my shift." The family complained that she was taking care of their family member while she was impaired (which we all know is true; headaches that bad are completely distracting), and she was fired. Do NOT ever, ever, ever post anything that could even remotely make yourself, your facility, a patient, or a coworker look bad. The only thing I'd think it would be safe to say on Facebook if you had to say anything at all would be something like "I had a wonderful day! I love my patients!" Anything else and you are on some shaky ground...

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Specializes in Oncology.

Excellent reminders all around. When I first started my job I was pretty naive and posted things like, "Heading in for another long night." Then I realized- firstly, do I want everyone knowing my house is going to be empty for the next 12 hours? Do my friends that can't find jobs want to hear me moan about mine? Does anyone think its classy to hear me whine about taking care of cancer patients while I'm healthy? Further, I've found a positive attitude goes a long way and posting things like that was spreading my negative attitude before I even walked in the doors at work. The last thing I posted about work now was how awesome my coworkers were when they bought be a birthday cake.

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And as a final reminder, do not ever, ever post where it is you work under your "information".....

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I remember awhile back a girl I went to school with posted a picture of a placenta from her clinicals on facebook. The instructor got wind of it and she was kicked out of the program - ouch 3 years gone.

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
And for Pete's sake don't friend any of your patients or their family members!

Do people seriously do this? For the love of Benji...

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Specializes in retired from healthcare.

On Facebook I have I immediately delete any comments that cause an attempted discussion about my old work places.

I am not about to vent about my work with people who have no idea what I'm going through.

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I've had coworkers fired or seriously reprimanded for talking about work on FB. In most instances, it was a coworker FB "friend" that printed out screen shots and took it straight to either the NM or in a couple instances, the CEO himself!

In those cases that I've heard about, it was nothing HIPAA related, it was more along the lines of whining about coworkers and/or the workplace environment.

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Which is why my FB is locked down as tight as a drum and I'm not friends with anybody from work and there is absolutely no chance they are friends with any of my other friends. Not that I have said anything totally stupid but I have made a general vent once or twice.

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Specializes in Oncology.
Do people seriously do this? For the love of Benji...

Yes, I have multiple coworkers who are friends with patients and family members. I have at least three coworkers who have been disciplined over Facebook issues. One of my coworkers who has gotten on trouble is still friends with patients. I talked to her about it and she said she truly feels like they're her friends, so she won't be un-friending them.

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Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.
Do people seriously do this? For the love of Benji...

Yep, people do this. I've seen coworkers who have. I'll never understand what possessed them to do to that!

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Specializes in long term care - MDS.

Very scary all. This is another take.

I didn't even have a facebook acct. but several people at work did. There are always cliques at work. I 'shared' an office with a coworker who had taken over the office with not only her own things, but that of another employee (relative) sort of as storage. I came after her, but in reality, was the 'dept head' being an RN, she an Lvn. There were plenty of cabinets and drawers, but they needed cleaning out, snacks, decorations, trash. I had one drawer and a double cabinet. We were going to have a life safely inspection and I was told to get things off the floor. We had bankers boxes, those kind we often use to hold things we need to keep until yearly inspection or if files, three years. But the fact that our files were in boxes on the floor and another dept's supplies were in cabinets just hit me wrong I guess. The Lvn was on vacation. I asked my immediate supervisor and another district advisor about going through things and they were all for it. Someone at the facility who didn't like this Lvn posted I don't know what, but a family member of the Lvn. would go on facebook, knew this person and it got back to her. All while she was on vacation. I knew something was up when she came back mad and barely spoke to me. And yes, I did try to call her and let her know I needed to go through things, but wasn't able to get up with her. Then I thought, 'why should I bother her with this while she is on vacation?'.

I never found out who posted, the supervisors who encouraged me acted as though they knew nothing about it. It was a mess and things were never really comfortable afterward. This was a case of someone being spiteful. Shame.

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