In trouble afraid of being kicked out don't know what to do

[Sweetb90]

Hey guys I need advice. Apparently I'm in trouble for a social media post. I posted on my Facebook a picture of me in a scrub cap in a locker room and said "I'm so lucky that I got to see a C-section. Learned so much in OB." There are 2 other posts like that. My school's policy states that you can't take a picture of a patient or an activity. I didn't feel I took a picture of an activity though. To me that meant don't post in a procedure etc. ?‍♀️. Now I have to meet with my director, my teacher, and my clinical coordinator and until then I can't go to clinical. I feel like this just spells doom that I'm going to be expelled. I have 5 weeks till I graduate. Advice please!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

General rule: if it has to do with school or work, don't post it. No matter how innocent it may seem. You'd be surprised at how much info can be gleaned from one picture. Those who know what the inside of the locker room looks like can recognize the facility. Nursing students are guests of the facility hosting clinicals, and it's a fiercely competitive battle in many areas to secure clinical sites. Schools are going to do everything they can to make sure they stay in the good graces of their clinical site hosts, including having restrictive social media policies/rules/expectations. Many facilities post in elevators that they prohibit recording and pictures of any type by visitors. Employee policies spell out how to take approved pictures- usually limited to utilizing devices provided by the facility that enter the picture directly into the medical record.

Prepare now. Recognize what you did wrong and have an explanation of how you will avoid doing anything similar in the future. Depending on how much clinical you will be missing, you may be unable to graduate at all this semester even if the decision is made to allow you to continue.

[Orion81RN]

As dumb as it is that you are in trouble for this, don't argue it. Apologize. Tell them that you learned from this and that it won't happen again. Hopefully you can make up your clinical and graduate.

That being said what asshat do you have on your social media that reported this? Because somebody you trusted reported it. What a jerk. Learn from that as well.

[JKL33]

There's no reason for programs to not have completely clear and über-restrictive policies about this now.

You can't take excited people with basically no experience and expect them to know every detail of what kinds of things are going to upset the apple cart. It may be second nature to more experienced nurses that stuff like this is to be avoided at all costs (mostly because of others' hysterics), but there is no reason to believe that complete novices who have never known life without communicating this way are going to get it right when left mostly to their own thought processes.

OP, I agree with the above advice. Let them know how sorry you are and that you believed you were exercising caution.

[Rionoir, ADN, RN]

Don’t even take your phone out at clinical and certainly don’t take any pictures while you’re at your clinical. It’s mostly to do with covering their butt so as not to tick off the hospital and lose their clinical spot, not anything to do with privacy in a case like this. Some hospitals don’t even want students to have their phones with them - period.

[2BS Nurse, BSN]

Take responsibility and apologize. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. Making through your program involves sucking it up and telling your instructors what they want to hear. When you work as a RN, you'll have more autonomy. To be safe in the future, don't post anything that shows photos of your work place.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I second the above advice. This is over-the-top reactive, unless there is something else in that picture you aren't realizing. Its possible the hospital itself is taking umbrage. I disagree that someone "sold you out" as a matter of course. Hospitals have entire work forces whose whole job is to monitor social media and take care of their brand.

Express remorse. Offer to do an in-service on appropriate social media use in the clinical setting. Beg if you must.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

51 minutes ago, Nurse SMS said:

Express remorse. Offer to do an in-service on appropriate social media use in the clinical setting.

All of the advice you've been offered has been great, but I especially like this idea. It not only shows that you understand where you went wrong but also can use it as a learning opportunity for your fellow co-students.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I guess I don't understand why people have to make public so much of what ends up being pretty mundane stuff that others really couldn't care less to read about.

That said, I concur with others that this seems heavy handed. Also agree that you should apologize profusely; do not argue that this doesn't exactly match with what you were told not to do...don't rock the boat when you are five weeks from graduating.

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

OP you have been given some good advice.

I had a situation in my final year. I wrote a public facebook post about living with clinical depression. Someone copied and posted it to my head of school and I got hauled in for a meeting.

There was nothing about nursing in this post.

The post basically talked about living with clinical depression and coping strategies to stop it impacting on my daily life. A wise nurse told me "if they need you to apologise, you apologise" what went unsaid is that while you may need to verbalise remorse, you dont have to mean it

And that was what I did. I wrote a written reflection about the impact of social media and something along the lines of "I am sorry that my post caused such consternation and problems for the tutoring staff.

After the meeting wrapped up, my head of year basically said "you should be careful about who you add as a friend on facebook"

[carti, BSN, RN]

This is so stupid and I don't know why they would waste their time (and yours) to do a stupid, pointless meeting. Everyone in my nursing school took pictures like that when we did our OR rotation. Just act fake-sorry and say you will never do it again and voila.

And there is like a .00001 chance you will get expelled and if they do, you should definitely sue/appeal/whatever you do don't just accept it.

[chocoholic999]

Well you are getting a lot of strokes and comfort from posters telling you the school was over-reactive, punitive, and "stupid" and that you should basically blame youth and excitement on the fact that you violated a school policy and a condition of clinical placement.

The take away here is that you need to acknowledge that the patient's care and needs are not intended for your enjoyment and entertainment. Nothing about the patient's needs (for a c section) should have been posted on social media. Maybe this was a large urban hospital that served dozens of c sections that day and no one would ever know "who" you were posting about. Or maybe is was a small local center and only one birth by c section that week. It doesn't matter. The surgery was not intended for your excitement and glorification by social media. The post was all about you at the patient's expense.

That should be the learning and remorse that you take to the school. And forget about suing, as Carti BSN suggested. You were in the wrong.