Do nurses have a responsibility to keep their Facebook professional?

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?

[eatmysoxRN, ASN, RN]

I agree with you. I keep my facebook clean on the rare occasion I post something. I think facebook could give employers reason to terminate employees depending on the policies in place.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I think nobody should be posting that crap, whether a nurse or not.

[nursel56]

No, you're not an old fart! Yes, you will hear people say that what one does while they aren't working is none of the employer's business, the fact is they do look at that, so do you really want them to see a picture of you at the beach guzzling beer from an ice luge? I think not.

Just a few days ago someone related that they were fired because another person wrote an inappropriate post about a nurse humiliating a resident at the facility where they both worked. They assumed if it was there that she saw it, and therefore didn't report a case of abuse that she was aware of. I never post anything about work on social media websites.

[NurseCard, ADN]

I post mostly photo's of my kids, inspirational stuff, and silly stuff

like the kitty cat sitting on a little table; looked like the cat had four

new legs. The caption? "Lt. Dan! You got new legs!" =)

I try to stay away from posting things that are crude, full of foul

language, or embarrassing, but my life is uber stressful and

sometimes I can't help posting the occasional "SOS!" status.

I don't have that many Facebook friends; most of them know

me pretty well, another bunch of them are friends from Church.

(another reason why I try to keep it clean! =))

In a perfect world, yes what we post on Facebook should

have no bearing on our professional life, but the fact is

that a computer savvy employer can find ANYTHING

ever posted on the Internet, EVER. So...

And yes, I do feel like the poster who's friend

posted that thing on her Facebook page deserved

to be fired if she knew that it was there and

failed to delete it and scold her friend for it. JMO.

[Zookeeper3]

If you do a search here, you will find some strong opinions and some excellent advice that mirrors your thoughts, though not everyone is that social network savy. Once it's posted, it's there forever!

I never ever post any specifics, but I do have pics of me drinking a beer or a frozen foo foo here and there. I might say," sure as all get out, it was a full moon and the crazies were out in full force". Now it didn't say I was at work, where I work, what type of work I do anywhere on my site. I could be working flipping burgers for all the public knows.

I know enough to call my nurse friends and have a private complaint session... a public forum is NOT the place. In fact I am VERY careful here as well, as some need to heed that and give less details too!

[Hay, RN]

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?

My Facebook is private. Not public. Only my friends can see ANYTHING on my profile. (: So I don't care what I put on there.

[FLmomof5]

I *never* friend co-workers.....well, one exception (she and I were NS classmates and now work on the same floor). My posts are either family or old friend stuff, silly stuff or, much to many a person's chagrin - political.

I have insisted that my children remove inappropriate stuff from their pages, not only because it reflects badly on them, but because it appears on my page and could reflect poorly on me.

I *do* have my employer listed which is why I am extra cautious. Nothing on my page should reflect poorly on my employer or me as a RN.

Strange thing though......my hubby (US Army) deleted his FB page purely because some officer thought my political posts (highly conservative/republican) could be considered "seditious" and hurt hubby's career! Really?!? Wow. So being against the current Pres (aka: Commmander-in-Chief) and supporting his challenger is "seditious"?! Gotta love the "extremes" of politics these days. So much for the first amendment.

[klone, MSN, RN]

IMO, if you have posted your place of employment anywhere in your profile, you automatically have designated yourself a representative of that employer, and anything you say on Facebook can definitely come back and haunt you, or at least look super unprofessional.

One of the reasons why I don't list my employer in my profile!

[OnlybyHisgraceRN, ASN, RN]

One word: Yes.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

Also, most hospitals have a social media policy and if you are inappropriate and you have you work at a certain place they can fire you as you are a representative of that institution. That's why I don't list where I work, but I don't post stuff like that either. And unless you don't friend people you work with, your page is not totally private, things can show up on others pages and they can still share things from your page.

[chuckster, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

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

I maintain my professional demeanor on Face Book by not having an account :-|