Can blogging hurt or harm your career

[btcoonhound]

Im just getting started into blogging within the nursing subject. Ive been thinking about it and am a little hesitant to throw my name on things for fear of how it could reflect on prospective employment down the road. Has anyone had thoughts on that or any insights?

[Susie2310]

I think that unless you are someone who writes, whether by nature, intention, or both, encouragingly and optimistically, making an effort to consistently support other people through kindness and through seeing the best in their actions/motivations, whilst refraining from expressing anything that could be construed as negative judgement, political incorrectness, libel, or invasion of another person's privacy, that using one's real name to blog has the potential to harm oneself personally/professionally (and possibly even one's family, employer, co-workers, and even strangers), along with the potential for other people to perceive that you are injuring their reputations. And, as RiskManager illustrated, even if you blog anonymously yet write about actual events in sufficient detail, this can still be enough to cause severe problems for you if other people recognize what you are writing about.

[btcoonhound]

I think the only negative I will be talking about is my initial reactions to the new technology used in education. The blackboard, my peak style interfaces the schools use were a bit of a shock after 20+ years away from college. The rest is intended to be about adapting to that, materials i use to study etc and the great support I've received along the way. Ive started posting quizzes i make for myself also, maybe it will give someone an idea on how to help their grades etc. thank you all the the assistance [emoji3]

[PatHeyman]

If you're blogging just to vent, then do it anonymously. But if you're doing to teach and offer insight, to help people be better, then do it under your name. You're building a reputation for yourself. And reputations can either hurt or help your career depending on how you build it.

One tip I would suggest is decide fairly early on who your intended audience is. Are you journaling in public? Or are you blogging for other nurses? The public at large? Knowing this will help guide you.

[seanpdent, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP]

Heh heh... been blogging for 10 years.. with no repercussions. Treat your blogging the same way you would treat conversations in the hospital elevator. It's that simple.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Been doing it for almost 10 years, though it's not for any professional/career reasons. It's just a little place to put my thoughts into order. I like to look back and see how far I've come since the pre-nursing school days. And if anyone stumbles onto it, welcome and say hi.

I do it anonymously and do not name names of any person/facility/school. I also am very careful about venting or being negative about work, my workplace, my coworkers, etc. Even though I don't use my real name, I always write as though my real name could very well become attached to it. Because you never know: more than one anonymous nurse/MD blogger has had their identity outed, through carelessness on their own part and/or detective work on someone else's part.