Social Media and Doxxing - Your Thoughts???

[traumaRUs]

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?

[Section8UpX68WM6, CNA, LVN, EMT-B]

On 9/17/2019 at 1:13 AM, rn1965 said:

You and me both! Remember when we used to get angry when someone read our diary? Now we invite the world to see it and get angry when people don't read it/respond. Well, not me, but others!

I agree. However, in my 54 years of life, I have come to learn that there are people out there who thrive on getting someone else in trouble. This is in every workplace, every educational institution, every club, etc. Think of the old geezers who drive around neighborhoods turning in their neighbors for HOA infractions.

I do not have Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. This is the ONLY forum I belong to. I just do not see any justification for the risk.

When somebody used to read our diary? I miss the 1980s lol. A lot of angry older sisters out there. Haha. Hopefully they've forgiven family members for that. But yes, it's a snitch Stazi/Gestapo culture we have now at work and outside it. Not only will these "people" report you, they'll set you up too.

[Section8UpX68WM6, CNA, LVN, EMT-B]

21 hours ago, futurepsychrn said:

I'm going to take a slightly different position here. Are we not still in America where freedom of speech is guaranteed by the 1st amendment? As long as HIPPA is not violated, why would you let someone tell you what you can or cannot say when you are not at work? It baffles me that we have come to the point in this country where we allow ourselves to be made sheep for corporations. If your company tells you you may not EVER have a glass of wine while employed by them, will you do that also? If they tell you you can't shop at a certain store because they don't agree with their policies, do you stop shopping there? If you work for, say a Catholic hospital, and they say you must stop attending your church and only attend Catholic services and you MUST attend church regularly do you leave your chosen religion and do as they say? When you are not on the clock, they are not in charge! When do we say enough is enough? A job is just that, a job, at least mine is. It's not my life it's my job.

I agree with you.

Remember this:

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article207364464.html

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

On 9/16/2019 at 9:26 AM, Waiting for Retirement said:

I realize I'm showing my age a bit here but I don't understand the near-constant need for people to take pictures of themselves (or their food, or the grocery store line they are standing in, etc), comment on everything related to that picture and then send it out to the world. Obsession of so many people as to make me wonder why. Do most people find what I think of as routine banality fascinating?

To answer your questions I think if I was a selfie kind of person I'd only post pictures that I'd be comfortable posting on my HR's hallway bulletin board. If I had to blur anything out I probably wouldn't think it smart to post online, as there would be a reason for the blurring. If there's a reason for hiding, just don't do it.

I also think the person who reported him is a busybody and obviously interested in some kind of revenge or punishment for the one in the picture. There is no valid reason to "out" him as long as it's true there was zero identifying information that could be linked to the patient in question, or negatively reflect on the facility if that part of the name badge was visible.

Yes, I know my facility policy is pretty much what I just said LOL, something HR and I agree on! I know we're not allowed to take any pictures within the walls of the facility no matter who or what they are of, so it stands to reason that would include me taking a picture of myself in work attire.

I'm with you. I mourn the death of people having a sense of privacy, and hate that many folks are so desperate for attention and validation that they pimp out the most mundane aspects of their lives for online affirmation. (On top of that, the online community is often very vicious, given the "bravery" of their relative anonymity.)

[ThatChickOmi, ADN, RN]

Yeah, I'm a firm believer of not mentioning anything too specific about work online, even "closed groups". I'll allude to the fact that I'm in healthcare, and maybe vaguely say something about having a rough shift or something, but that's it. And I absolutely don't mention anything on my own page about it, aside from tagging people in funny memes.

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

On 9/16/2019 at 1:20 PM, juan de la cruz said:

Correct, and doxxing can take a highly sophisticated process of deciphering your identity even in this website where the members can use an alias and post anonymously. We should be careful with what we post about our workplaces here as well.

Off topic but this is why I snigger with the new members who's first (and only) post is something like "what EMR does hospital X use? I start Monday" and wonder why nobody answers.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

9 hours ago, LovingLife123 said:

The person that reported him was wrong. They were being malicious.

I don’t see what the big deal is posting a picture of yourself at work. As long as you aren’t posting patient info, what is the big deal?

If this nurse had 5 patients that night, 5 patients could have made that statement. It’s in no way identifying information.

And since when is it a violation for people to know where you work? Who cares if the symbol of the company he worked for was in his pic. You can say on your profile where you work. And unless the hospital is firing everyone who identifies that they are an employee at this facility, it’s a moot point.

People are taking HIPAA too far. It amazes me how many people on here don’t understand it. This nurse also wasn’t blasting his employer. So again, not sure what the big deal was.

The firing was wrong. And the nurse that reported him needs a lesson on having a good work environment. I’m guessing this firing has made everyone suspicious of each other and morale is in the toilet.

People are so vicious to each other these days. I don’t get it.

I can't help but feel you aren't "getting it".

He posted this to a group that had over 270K members. Both the individual and his employer were easily identifiable. It is entirely possible/likely that nobody "reported" him and that people in his organization saw it for themselves.

He was at work, on property, discussing patients in a public forum in a way that he intended to be humorous. Problem is, most people would not want their health situation teased about, laughed at, made fun of or used for satire by the individual trusted to care for them. THAT action gave the public legitimate reason to believe that institution is okay with that behavior. Therefore the institution really had no choice but to fire him, to send a message to the public and to their employees that people aren't going to be making fun of/teasing/laughing at them if they come there for care, even if they aren't in their right mind at the time they are being cared for.

That's the material point. It was a serious error in judgment. The firing was heavy handed but far from outside the realm of a reasonable reaction in today's healthcare and social environment. This isn't a freedom of speech issue. Every one of us is free to say anything we want on any platform we want and we can't be put in jail for doing so. We can, however, suffer the consequences of our actions in all kinds of other ways. His firing was a natural consequence of laughing at/about a patient entrusted to his care in a public forum.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

I just started a new job on Monday and had social media training yesterday. The training was very detailed and explicit, as I am sure most social media training modules are in our current culture. I don't post about work on Facebook, I saw someone get fired for an error in judgment a few years ago and I just don't go there, ever. Never worth it. Honestly, I think people want to go viral until they do for the reasons they didn't expect. We are free to say what we want, but we shouldn't be surprised if there are consequences. I agree that his post was probably seen by a social media person from his own facility; they are part of the big nursing groups like SMYS or Nurses with Cards, you'd better believe it! That's a huge part of their job.

I wish Josh all the best and I hope he finds new work soon.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

10 hours ago, LovingLife123 said:

People are taking HIPAA too far. It amazes me how many people on here don’t understand it. This nurse also wasn’t blasting his employer.  So again, not sure what the big deal was.

It’s not just HIPAA people have to worry about. Facilities also have social media policies. Some are stricter than others.

[Healerforlife]

On 9/15/2019 at 11:05 AM, traumaRUs said:

Great discussion. What about nurses who “tattle” about social media posts? The person, supposedly a nurse on this closed FB group went to considerable effort to “unblur” and out Josh’s post. Did THEY go too far? Who appointed them the guardian of the internet? 

1. Exactly! What Jerk "Friends" that person had. Once, my friend lamented about calling as she had the Flu to her OB unit, as she was going to be written up for call-in's. We had a policy of 4 call-ins in a "Rolling" year. which is BS . But anyway. all I said to her was "It's too bad you have to worry about calling in when you work at a Hospital" One of her "Friends" reported me for saying this. I was told they were writing a "Policy" and that next time I would be fired. It was crazy. I told my boss, I meant everything I said. "It IS crazy a nurse has to worry about calling in sick when they work in OB" How ridiculous!

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Quote

I realize I'm showing my age a bit here but I don't understand the near-constant need for people to take pictures of themselves (or their food, or the grocery store line they are standing in, etc), comment on everything related to that picture and then send it out to the world.

My Ds and I sometimes take pics of our food (whether we cook ourselves or at a restaurant) and send it to each other in texts because we are interested in cooking and sharing recipes. When a meal looks good, we can ask and receive tips on it. We aren't posting it to social media per se, only to each other in texts. But if you saw me doing it, you wouldn't really know where I was posting it.

[LovingLife123]

3 hours ago, Nurse SMS said:

I can't help but feel you aren't "getting it".

He posted this to a group that had over 270K members. Both the individual and his employer were easily identifiable. It is entirely possible/likely that nobody "reported" him and that people in his organization saw it for themselves.

He was at work, on property, discussing patients in a public forum in a way that he intended to be humorous. Problem is, most people would not want their health situation teased about, laughed at, made fun of or used for satire by the individual trusted to care for them. THAT action gave the public legitimate reason to believe that institution is okay with that behavior. Therefore the institution really had no choice but to fire him, to send a message to the public and to their employees that people aren't going to be making fun of/teasing/laughing at them if they come there for care, even if they aren't in their right mind at the time they are being cared for.

That's the material point. It was a serious error in judgment. The firing was heavy handed but far from outside the realm of a reasonable reaction in today's healthcare and social environment. This isn't a freedom of speech issue. Every one of us is free to say anything we want on any platform we want and we can't be put in jail for doing so. We can, however, suffer the consequences of our actions in all kinds of other ways. His firing was a natural consequence of laughing at/about a patient entrusted to his care in a public forum.

The patient wasn’t identifiable. A statement does not make them indentifiable. I’m also referring to the plethora of people on here that say you can say where you work on social media. It’s not true and every time something like this comes up, that statement gets made.

Last Christmas, my unit took a group photo before we stepped out on to the floor. We posted Merry Christmas from our unit. Where we worked was visible, name badges visible. That’s not a violation.

In most states, you can be fired for anything. Any employer can decide to fire you for any reason. That’s what happened here. I read that an ER nurse took issue and reported it up. It was malicious and wrong for that nurse to do that.

There was a recent thread about posting stories that your facility does on your social media. People were saying it’s a Violation to do that when it’s not. That’s why I’m saying many don’t understand HIPAA. This was not a violation. This was more about people disagreeing with what he posted.

To me, that’s a slippery slope. Employers shouldn’t be able to govern our every move. But it’s becoming that way because every body screams HIPAA!!!

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

1 hour ago, LovingLife123 said:

The patient wasn’t identifiable. A statement does not make them indentifiable. I’m also referring to the plethora of people on here that say you can say where you work on social media. It’s not true and every time something like this comes up, that statement gets made.

Last Christmas, my unit took a group photo before we stepped out on to the floor. We posted Merry Christmas from our unit. Where we worked was visible, name badges visible. That’s not a violation.

In most states, you can be fired for anything. Any employer can decide to fire you for any reason. That’s what happened here. I read that an ER nurse took issue and reported it up. It was malicious and wrong for that nurse to do that.

There was a recent thread about posting stories that your facility does on your social media. People were saying it’s a Violation to do that when it’s not. That’s why I’m saying many don’t understand HIPAA. This was not a violation. This was more about people disagreeing with what he posted.

To me, that’s a slippery slope. Employers shouldn’t be able to govern our every move. But it’s becoming that way because every body screams HIPAA!!!

He didn't get fired for the patient being identifiable. He got fired for representing that institution as a nurse who will openly poke fun of patients on social media. He didn't represent their brand well, so he's gone. It isn't about HIPAA. It isn't about freedom of speech. Its about making your employer look bad if they do nothing. It's about wisdom.