Professional relationships/social media

[may20rn]

I’m a nurse on a pediatric unit and some patients families create and share photos/updates on public facebook groups. Does it violate HIPAA or any other nursing/BON expectations to “like” these pages? I’ve also seen coworkers who are facebook friends with patients and parents. It feels like a very blurred area. For example, if a parent took a picture of a nurse with the patient and shared it on the facebook page, is there anything wrong with that nurse sharing the post? I know the easiest solution is to avoid social media interaction altogether but there are some patients that I’ve bonded so much with and would like to be a part of their supporters 

[JKL33]

No it doesn't violate HIPAA to like a fakebook page. However nursing expectations are another story. These people (those in charge of making sure there is never a hint of anything that someone might think sounds like it could possibly be something inappropriate) are not inclined to 1) actually know what they are talking about  or 2) use any judgment or discretion.

You're right, it is a blurry area and unless your employer publishes something explicitly in writing (I.e. makes it a matter of policy) that these are allowed activities, I wouldn't do it. They like to feign ignorance of these things and then all of a sudden make them into a federal crime when they want to can someone...or else wait until someone really does do something wrong and then everyone is in trouble for activities the employer can't not have known about for a long time.

[Rainbow_RN, BSN, RN]

Check your organization's social media policy. In this day and age it's sort of a red flag if they don't have one. For me, I would avoid interacting...as stated, you may have no consequences now but anything on the internet is sort of "forever" and it would not help you if you ran into trouble later. At my place, it's actually prohibited for the patients to take photos or videos of the nurses or other employees. Makes it a lot easier to keep boundaries.