Social Media and Doxxing - Your Thoughts???

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So, I first had to look up "doxxing" which is to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge.

This recently came up when I read about Joshua Strickland, an RN in Louisianna who posted a selfie at the end of his first day on a new job in which he BLURRED out parts of his name tag. He vaguely mentioned a comment from a patient he had cared for that day without revealing any identifying information. He posted it to a FB group and it went viral as so many nurses could identify with his sentiment.

However, out of the thousands of supportive comments he received there was someone who felt a need to report it. So, they utilized technology to "unblur" his name tag and then reported it to his hospital.

He was fired and is currently unemployed.

So....what are your thoughts on this?

Is it okay to post selfies regarding work situations?

How about the person who reported it?

Do you know your facility policy?

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
2 hours ago, JabuJabule said:

I still fail to see why the patient cannot be held accountable for their negative actions.

They can, if they are in their right minds. It's unfortunate for people on the receiving end of violence from behavioral health patients, but we often have little legal recourse. I have been assaulted as an ER nurse, but there have been many times that the patients were not lucid.

2 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care and ED.
4 hours ago, JabuJabule said:

I still fail to see why the patient cannot be held accountable for their negative actions.

No one supported the patient or what he said, but the crucial point is that the patient doesn't work for this organization....Josh did. It's well known that patients are allowed to behave any way they want with little comeback. They're paying customers after all. An employee is a representation of that organization and I believe they frown on using cuss words in a public forum by an individual who is identified as working for them.

3 Votes
Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.
On 9/30/2019 at 9:45 PM, SmilingBluEyes said:

I think where FB, SnapChat, Twitter and others come, it's best never to have in one's profile where he or she works and never mention work, in any way, or have pictures of such in your threads/posts. Anyone can use any reason to fire us and this has to be one of the easiest ways. Asking others not to engage in doxxing is pointless. The ones who do this are never going to change. They love the trouble they create, the damage they cause others.

? not sure what you mean. I think to say, when we have lost anonymity, we lose the filter that may protect us otherswise?

What I'm saying is that if we are anonymous we have no filter - we can say what we want because no one knows who we are. However, once our identity is revealed, we must then more closely adhere to the norms of society.

1 Votes
Specializes in Med Surg, Tele, PH, CM.

Most healthcare entities have strict rules against taking photos in the work environment. Period, no exceptions, no blurred out nametags. Why is it that we as a society cannot put our cell phones away in the workplace? As for the "whistleblower", Karma is a ***. Thankfully, have never worked with anyone that mean. I would have probably just suspended Joshua without pay and prayed that it was a life-altering experience for him. But bottom line, no pictures means no pictures. And to make another argument, he probably shared that comment with more than one person who was in a position to know the patient's identity before he posted, so HIPPAA was already blown. Hard lesson to learn.

2 Votes
Specializes in school nurse.
3 hours ago, Katie82 said:

Why is it that we as a society cannot put our cell phones away in the workplace?

Amen! There are actually a whole lot of other places where people should be putting their cell phones away as well...

2 Votes
Quote
4 hours ago, Katie82 said:

Why is it that we as a society cannot put our cell phones away in the workplace?

1 hour ago, Jedrnurse said:

Amen! There are actually a whole lot of other places where people should be putting their cell phones away as well...

That ship has sailed. Big time. It's probably only going to get worse.

2 Votes
Specializes in school nurse.
2 hours ago, Horseshoe said:

That ship has sailed. Big time. It's probably only going to get worse.

Yeah. People will end up having their bluetooths surgically implanted...

2 Votes
Specializes in Hospice Nursing.
On 9/21/2019 at 6:34 PM, Meriwhen said:

I know I've posted this story before, but I was in a RN-BSN program affiliated with a hospital system. At orientation, we were told this cautionary tale about social media:

The school's policy was to try to place their own graduates in their hospitals first before accepting outside new grads--grads were not guaranteed a job by any means, but they did get preference for hiring when possible. Well, one of their graduates was pretty unhappy with how things were going and was online shooting off her mouth, saying pretty negative things about the job hunt and the school. The school found out about it, was not happy, and decided not to hire her into their system.

How did they find out? An HR rep from ANOTHER hospital in town saw her posts and notified the school. "

This second hospital didn't want her for their new grad program either after seeing this. AND they also let the third major hospital system in town know about what she was posting online, so they could decide if they wanted her in their new grad programs. No idea if she was able to land herself that new grad job...

Nursing is a smaller world than you think...and the internet makes it even smaller.

I find this unnecessary and vindictive. I'm sure the nurse learned her lesson after this incident and is unlikely to repeat the mistake. There was no need to "spread the word" ?

Specializes in Hospice Nursing.
On 9/21/2019 at 7:45 PM, LovingLife123 said:

That’s just wrong. Maybe the first hospital’s units were really awful that they were interviewing for. Some places are awful employers. Stating you are frustrated with a job hunt does not make you a bad employee.

We have certainly traveled backwards in recent years with how we are allowed to speak. We are no longer allowed to speak our minds or voice opinions. God forbid it’s something that doesn’t exactly align with the views of another. They will destroy your life.

The fact of the matter is, you don’t have to love your employer, you don’t have to love what you do every day. You don’t have to like everyone.

Its so disappointing that I feel like we had more freedom 10 years, 20 years ago than we do now.

I agree. They wanted to punish her for "tarnishing" their name. In my opinion, the hospital was out of line.

Specializes in Hospice Nursing.
On 9/27/2019 at 1:19 PM, CommunityRNBSN said:

People who engage in “doxxing” or otherwise wreaking havoc via social media, are the worst kind of malicious losers. They generally do this anonymously— spend hours in their mom’s basement and feel really proud of themselves when they successfully unblur an image. It’s pathetic, but unfortunately sometimes they “win,” as in this particular case. That nurse will go on to be fine though, he will just explain to potential employers what happened and everyone will move on.

YES!!! There's absolutely NO excuse for this kind of behavior, I don't care what the person being doxxed did. Doxxing has the potential to put the person's safety at risk and also innocent people can get hurt. That being said, the nurse who posted the picture and made the comments made a mistake. Unfortunately cost him his job, but I'm sure he learned his lesson, and we can all learn from his mistake as well. I'm glad he was able to find another job.

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