Patient videos on social media?

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A new one came up for me today: a patient needs his wound irrigated in a specific way, so the doctor and the nurse assigned to him that day made a short video showing the technique and uploaded it to a private social media group that includes only unit staff and doctors. I'm usually very down on anything involving social media and patients, but I thought this was a creative way to get the word out to everyone. But one of the doctors objected. I think actually he just didn't agree with the treatment, though it isn't his patient, but he said the staff shouldn't be posting such videos. It's a pretty gruesome video, so that might also bother some people. I'm not sure exactly what his main argument was, but I was curious about what you guys would think.

Obviously, the patient knew they were making the video, and I assume he knew why.

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Mostly probably because unless the patient signed some sort of very specific waiver they could turn around and say that they were taped without their permission and their privacy rights violated. Some patients unfortunately are this way.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I think it's very inadvisable. One mistake or deviation from perfection is out there on social media for all to see. Bad idea.

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Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.

Out of line, I agree with smilingBlueEyes

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I think it shouldn't be on a social media of any sort, even if it's just for staff and Drs, reason being, if it leaks beyond the staff, could it be sold or encouraged to be done as a home remedy which in turn, between the privacy issues and the lack of knowledge to perform the procedure, would be beyond devastating on numerous levels.

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I'm kind of being devil's advocate on this, because my kneejerk response is, be safe by staying away from social media. But this has become quite the discussion among the staff. The video is 24 seconds long and just demonstrates where to irrigate and how it should look when done right. There's no identifying information at all. There's simply no way that the video shows a mistake or that it could be used in any way other than by the nurses taking care of this one patient. The doctor who objects says videos aren't the way to demonstrate patient care, that we need to be meeting each other in front of our patients, but of course that's unrealistic (to have all twenty nurses see a bedside demonstration). We have pictures on the computer charting all the time; anyone could download those and distribute them if they wanted to for some reason. The main difference that I see is that social media is owned by someone else and technically I think we don't know who might be reading private chats without our knowledge.

I think the idea of using video for teaching/staff communication is a clever one and I've been trying to think of a realistic way it could be used without social media. Patients with extensive wounds often have a major (and valid) concern that the nurses don't all know how to dress them properly. I think it would reduce variation in practice, and also make the patients feel more comfortable, if the nurses could watch video of the dressing change being done exactly right.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

As long as it has been run by legal okay, if the legal department doesn't know about it, no way. And nothing is private in the cyber world.

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I wonder if the patients know what they are consenting to when being videotaped or photographed. My hospital's consent is pretty specific to educational purposes only by hospital staff and use only on the intranet not internet. It is considered property of the hospital and possession of it is taken very seriously. That also extends to use of PPT presentations created by you for educational purposes while an employee of that hospital.

Recently a recording of a cric procedure was released to a blogger by the resident who did the cric. The headlines for this video has gone with the headline "Doc does mind blowing cric" and is being shared on YouTube and many different social media sites. The resident doc justifies the release of the video by saying the patient consented. I would like to know if the patient and the hospital's legal team consented for this video to be on numerous private and public social media websites worldwide. I bet the patient thought it was only for teaching purposes rather than ego stroking for the resident and didn't realize his life, family, personal appearance and whatever else was going to be up for critique by anyone, medical or not, who cared to browse the videos with catchy titles. I also bet the legal team for the hospital is not happy with all the critics finding mistakes including the physician's own confusion about elective and emergent when he chose to bypass calling the inhouse ENT team when the blogger interviewed him. Unfortunately there are many patient videos out there consented under the pretense of education which have gone viral for the wrong reasons.

Be careful what you sign the next time you are in the hospital or an ambulance. You too could have your personal life broadcast to the world.

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I wonder if the patients know what they are consenting to when being videotaped or photographed. My hospital's consent is pretty specific to educational purposes only by hospital staff and use only on the intranet not internet. It is considered property of the hospital and possession of it is taken very seriously. That also extends to use of PPT presentations created by you for educational purposes while an employee of that hospital.

Recently a recording of a cric procedure was released to a blogger by the resident who did the cric. The headlines for this video has gone with the headline "Doc does mind blowing cric" and is being shared on YouTube and many different social media sites. The resident doc justifies the release of the video by saying the patient consented. I would like to know if the patient and the hospital's legal team consented for this video to be on numerous private and public social media websites worldwide. I bet the patient thought it was only for teaching purposes rather than ego stroking for the resident and didn't realize his life, family, personal appearance and whatever else was going to be up for critique by anyone, medical or not, who cared to browse the videos with catchy titles. I also bet the legal team for the hospital is not happy with all the critics finding mistakes including the physician's own confusion about elective and emergent when he chose to bypass calling the inhouse ENT team when the blogger interviewed him. Unfortunately there are many patient videos out there consented under the pretense of education which have gone viral for the wrong reasons.

Be careful what you sign the next time you are in the hospital or an ambulance. You too could have your personal life broadcast to the world.

My point exactly.

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the proper way tot do this is by posting to an education resource site on the hospital's intranet - not via a private Facebook group.

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The words "private" and "social media" should never be used in the same sentence. All it takes is one person.

Think about a girl sending a guy a nude picture on a social media platform where such a communication would be private. The girl then breaks up with the guy and then the guy decides to post her nude picture for the world to see.

While something is private now, it might not be private in the near future.

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There's a Dr on snap chat that snaps his surgeries. Dr Miami.

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