Finally understand the Facebook no-no's

Nurses Relations

Published

I've been having a lot of problems with a co-worker lately, and when she requested to be my FB friend, I thought about it long and hard before I accepted. I'm a nice person, and I give people the benefit of the doubt the majority of the time. She had been a lil nicer to me, so I thought this might be her way of mending bridges.

Wrong.

I have a nasty cold. One of those ones that settles into your chest and hangs on for days. Two days ago, I slept all day, then attempted to keep my dinner plans I had made a week or so ago. I would've canceled but its for a younger girl that I mentor. I went to dinner, and I was miserable. Could barely breathe, and I was exhausted when I arrived home. Up until that point, I had been feeling ok and I was going to try working, but once I got home, I knew I couldn't manage a 10 hour shift. I called in. I posted a status about needing lots of breathing tx's and sleep, and I thanked the young girl for putting up with my miserably sick self while at dinner.

I received a call from my nursing supervisor the next morning. Basically, my co-worker knew I called out, and she saw this status. This status had nothing to do with work, and in my opinion, isn't even incriminating. She "misread" it and told my supervisor that I went out to dinner after I had called in. I had to explain to my supervisor that I had attempted to go out to dinner before I called in, but was so sick I left early. She was still angry and told me that "it didn't look good" and asked why I even went out to dinner. So, I explained that the plans had been made for a week, and it was with a younger girl I mentor. Its been a rough week between me getting sick and my gramma being in the hospital. I was just trying to fit promised time in with the girl. That seemed to shut her up a bit.

After that, I immediately deleted the co-worker. I never post anything about work, or closely related to work on my FB as I know what can happen. I have learned my lesson. Work and FB do NOT mix.

I do have a FB account but I don't put details about my work, life etc. I have told my daughter that she posts WAYYY too much personal info on there but she still hasn't changed her posting behavior.

If she has her privacy settings locked down, and is selective with who she "friends" then unless she's posting her social security account number....she's probably fine with sharing details of her life :)

Specializes in geriatrics.

I can appreciate both sides of this debate. I enjoy fb to keep in contact my 20 friends. I share with these people only, and what we share is private. I regularly check to ensure my privacy settings are intact. And, I have in the past "unfriended" a few people for posting stupid comments. Since many of us live in different cities now, fb is really a nice way to keep in contact, and avoid huge phone bills.

As far as being sick and posting things...well...you can get bored after staying in bed for days. However, I think you need to be careful, so that people at work aren't wondering...so, ensure the privacy is "friends only". When random people ask to access my fb account, I just tell them no. Happy holidays everyone :)

Specializes in ER.

Facebook is great for letting people know about stuff in your life all at once. So when my barn blew over in the last storm, or when I needed to get rid of a tree I mentioned it. People that want firewood can speak up, everyone else notes that I may be complaining about insurance companies (tips on dealing with them welcome).

I get party informal invites on Facebook, RSVP is built in. Family pictures are easy to show off and share with Facebook. I've found out about old high school and nursing friends- I'm interested about their welfare, but don't email often enough at all.

If I knew the real names of some of the characters on allnurses I'd look them up on Facebook too.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

That being said, I would consider "friending" a co-worker (just as I have "friended fellow students). However, I do not "friend" people I don't know well (and trust), management or professors. After I graduate, I'll likely "friend" a few professors, and after I've left a job I've "friended" managers....but not until then.

I have received many friend invites from current students. At first, I'd just ignore them and not say anything to them. Then I'd mention in conversation that I do not want to be friends with my Students because I don't want to know what they're up to (when they should be studying or paying attention in lecture), nor do I want to hear their gripes. After they graduate, if they friend me, I accept, and I love reading their work related statuses.

It's really quite simple for me. If you're a coworker that I feel comfortable sharing a bit of myself with, I'll add you. However, because not ALL my business should be privy to the eyes of the people I work with, I add them to a group called "Coworkers". Everyone in that group is set in my privacy settings to a have limited view of my profile and blocked from certain statuses that might be deemed "Not work safe" or "Incriminatory". I try not to rely too heavily on the privacy settings, because I don't completely trust them, so I do a little self-censoring as well. Anything that I post on FB, I can live with it getting out ;).

P.S. I also have groups titled "Church", "Family", "High School" etc. Why? Because everything ain't for everybody!

Specializes in OB, HH, ADMIN, IC, ED, QI.

Nursing professionals need to develop good judgement, due to their expanded knowledge of diseases and human behavior. When many people know your background as a nurse, you enhance our profession by your wisdom about decision making skills.

I took the lack of negative comments here regarding the fact that you exposed to the virus/bacterial disease you had, not only to the child you met for dinner, but all the people around you after you left your home, as priority blindness! What if it had been SARS that you had?

Using technology unwisely was a far lesser offense toward humankind and specifically the shorter staffing at the unit, which probably went on longer due to the extension of your healing time caused by overexerting yourself. Do as you teach others to do.

Please, all of you, use more regard for your own health, as public health education for others. The suffering the OP mentioned was probably given to many others in her wake that night. That is not an image we nurses want to have. There is a domino effect to every unwise act!

Call me old fashioned, but i still wonder why anybody would post their lives in such great detail on a web site that can be read by most anybody and used against that poster. Some who have Facebook or Myspace accounts keep the personal stuff to a minimum, but far too many are posting stuff that will keep them out of some jobs, and could get them into serious trouble.

Heck, if I posted my face on Facebook, they would shut the site down. ;)

The #1 rule of FB, blogging, or any other public internet site: Never post anything you are not comfortable with the entire world knowing. You really don't know who is a friend of a friend on FB or who is using a misleading name online - don't assume only your real "Friends" will read your updates. It's great for public discussions & networking. It's just not meant for keeping private things private.

A general reminder: You make also want to double-check your privacy setting on FB. They make it hard to keep your info really private, and default settings for your account may not be the most secure

Call me old fashioned, but i still wonder why anybody would post their lives in such great detail on a web site that can be read by most anybody and used against that poster. Some who have Facebook or Myspace accounts keep the personal stuff to a minimum, but far too many are posting stuff that will keep them out of some jobs, and could get them into serious trouble.

Heck, if I posted my face on Facebook, they would shut the site down. ;)

The only people who can see what I post on Facebook, are my friends on Facebook. I know all my friends (they're not aliases or anything like that....they are friends, that I know).

Some may choose to open up their Facebook account to everyone.....but that is not the norm.

Specializes in Med/surg, ER/ED,rehab ,nursing home.

Again be careful of what you post. I know of a teacher who posts complaints that would make me NOT offer her a teaching contract the next year if she thought work was so awful. I wish she would be more careful.

Specializes in Nursing burnout retreat CE teacher, etc..

Facebook has its uses for talking about important issues like nursing burnout, sharing interesting articles and blog posts, posting inspirational comments. This is what I use it for. You could have two accounts, one that is totally private for real friends and family only, and another one to keep up with interesting issues and people. Always, it is good to remember that anything posted anywhere online could become public at any time (including comments here) so it is wise not to share personal information, unless you are OK with anyone and everyone knowing about it. Young people may regret some of the photos, info and comments they are sharing now, when later on they are looking for jobs, etc. Professional nurses need to remember that posting anything about patients or work can violate privacy laws. Social media is here to stay, and many people use facebook instead of email, by using the private message system on facebook instead of posting directly on the wall. It is a mixed bag, neither really bad nor good. But it can be a useful tool, if you are careful and sensible with it.

Specializes in Orthopaedic Nursing; Geriatrics.

I love facebook! It keeps me in touch with my sisters who live 900 miles away and has reunited me with old friends and lon lost relatives! But I am very careful about who I am friends with - no students of mine, no one professionally related. And if anyone who is a friend starts getting "gross" I "unfriend" them! I do not want my reputation ruined by someone who goes out boozing it up or whatever.

And as far as being too sick to work but being on the computer? That's ridiculous! Should not even be a question of right or wrong! That's about as stupid as a boss I had once who said if we called in sick it meant we were too sick to leave the house to go the doctor. REALLY? I don't want a sick nurse taking care of me! Stay home, watch Oprah, get on facebook, but stay away from our already sick patients!

This bigmouth was just a trouble maker. Plain and simple. :spbox:

+ Add a Comment