It appears our new life is now being controlled by this new phenomenon which had dragged many people into the 21st Century it can be fun, exciting and enables us to catch up with friends and family we may have lost touch with over the years. If you haven't been exposed to Facebook then you are probably dead or deep in a coma, and everybody has an opinion on it.
Businesses are thriving from advertising on facebooks, hundreds of jobs are being generated from it,
On the other hand it can be a very dangerous tool which is causing world wide discussions, new policies are being written and developed daily by companies to protect their workplace. Everyday we hear about problems being caused by this seemingly innocent pastime.
Employees are being fired for discussing work, or playing on there when they are off sick and somebody has seen the time and date you were on line.
Nurses are often in the spotlight because of confidentiality and the vulnerable nature of their job. Some people/patients believe that we 'the nurse' are their friends because of the care we give them during their sickness, they always remember our names when they meet us outside the hospital but how many of us remember our patients names?
In reality we are not their friends, it is our job to be kind and caring and to know everything about that patient in order to decide how best to serve them. We know their name, their age, their family members, their illnesses past and present, their job and job status, who lives with them, how many kids they have the list is endless. They share so much information with us, and to show we are interested and care we remember during their hospital stay to ask after their spouses and children each new day we look after them. So it is no wonder the line between us becomes smudged, of course we are just in the process of making the patient feel at home, to relax so that the quality of care is excellent and as we move on from room to room we hope we are doing a good job, but for some patients it must be difficult to understand or comprehend that once we leave work and go home, we leave the pts behind us, and we go on with 'normal' life.
Now we have a new concern patients want to befriend us on facebook. I for one couldnt count how many patients I have looked after in 20yrs, imagine if every other pt wanted to be my friend on Facebook-well I am just laughing out loud at the thought of it. Over the years I have met many wonderful people/patients, some who will be embedded in my memory forever, a lot who I thrust out of my mind as soon as possible and some whom I love to dread should I ever see again in my lifetime.
Here on allnurses there are heated debates concerned with such topics as "Facebook at work" "Do you add patients as your Facebook Friend"
It is an ethical and moral dilemma that should be easy to answer 'NO' you should never add a patient as a friend on facebook but like most ethical and moral dilemma;s there is never an easy answer is there?
I looked after a pt back in England for a year he had 'locked in syndrome' and eventually learned to communicate by computer he was a young patient in his early 40's. When I moved to the USA he asked me to email him which I did and still do 5 years on. It has been a very innocent relationship, he is housebound, wheelchair bound and socially isolated by his illness, his only pleasure is his computer and I have noticed recently that the emails are few and far between. I would probably not kept in touch had I lived back in the UK but felt safe being 3000 miles away and knowing his condition. I will never regret this relationship but I doubt I would have him as a facebook friend as to enjoy the site you have to have total freedom in what you communicate as it is totally open to the world.
I read on a thread today that a nurse communicated with her friend on Fb and a pt she had recently looked after was also friendly with the same friend, this pt then made a comment back to the nurse via the mutual friends page! I found this to be a little scary, we do not realize what a small world we live in.
Another friend of mine a Doctor back in the UK recently told me of something which happened to him on FB his great grandfather translated passages from the Koran and he photographed the pages to show how beautiful the writing was. This was accessed by somebody via a friend via another friend and he was subjected to racial abuse. I then went on and checked my privacy status and found my photo albums were open to everybody on facebook and I had to go in and edit each and every photo-it was not obvious by just checking the privacy you had to go into the albums themselves.
I don't know about you but I don't want my patients or my employers to view my photo's on facebook most of them are of myself, my family and friends enjoying themselves, some with drink in hand LOL. A lot of photo's are not work suitable, especially when you do education re dieting, alcohol use, smoking cessation, limitation of exposure to sun. A lot of photos contain pictures of people indulging themselves in activities you frown on in your professional life but it real life these are the photo's you love to share.
I have hundreds of fun in the sun photo's, beer in the bbq, funny photos of people falling over and everybody laughing the list is endless isn't it. But we wouldn't want our pts to disrespect us because of our home life, would we.
I think facebook is fun but it is about my personal life I want to keep it that way and I don't want to share it with my patients.
