When Referencing Dr. Google Can Be Harmful

The Internet allows people to have access to countless types of information right at their fingertips. In fact, most of the population searches the internet for all kinds of healthcare information. The concern is how much of the information they find is inaccurate and how can we help educate the public of trustworthy, reliable sources of information.

When Referencing Dr. Google Can Be Harmful

With the ability to search for anything on the internet, how many times per day do people seek information about a disease process, medication, lab results, etc? Countless! With one search and a click, one may have content in the form of news, forums, blogs, articles, etc. Of those, which are opinion-based versus evidence-based? What happens when the information they find is not accurate and becomes potentially harmful to themselves or others? Let’s dive into some examples. 

Covid-19 Pandemic and the Media

The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated a huge concern regarding health misinformation being produced on social media. At a time when the world was operating at high-stress levels and in unfamiliar territory, the information being spread only added to the problem. More than ever, social media is often a primary source of information to many, allowing it to be equally a positive and negative feat regarding healthcare. In fact, there was so much misinformation being spread, that researchers of multiple studies concluded that  0.2% to 28.8% of posts resulted in misinformation and all of them reported that the pandemic was meant to lead to fear or panic. 

Granted, in a world where so much was unknown, fear and panic were potential responses, but in the case of misinformation, many went as far as saying that the pandemic was not real and that it was a political tactic to cause that fear and panic. Who knew there were so many disease experts right in the comment section of facebook?  As healthcare providers, it became quite obvious just how real covid-19 was and how catastrophic it became when people by the masses opted to believe the misinformation and therefore contributed to many of the issues during the pandemic. At a time when healthcare should have been focusing on research and developing a treatment and/or cure, we found ourselves trying to educate anyone who was willing to listen in an attempt to help the greater good. 

Referencing Dr. Google

Nurses are great educators and often take any opportunity possible to ensure patients are receiving accurate information as it relates to their health and wellbeing. Very often, patients and/or family members will reference what they saw or read something on Google either during inpatient hospitalizations or in clinic settings. As patient advocates, we want our patients to take care of themselves and love it when they take initiative to learn about their health issues and medications. However, we often have to consider their sources and provide them with the correct information, as well as evidence-based educational content and/or sources for future use. 

Is TikTok Harmful?

I won’t go as far as to say that common sense left with the explosive onset of social media trends, but it doesn’t hurt to combat the potentially harmful trends floating around in cyberspace. I’m sure most have heard about the tide pod trend. Or perhaps the ingestion of cleaning products as a way to rid their body of diseases, such as Covid? As healthcare professionals, we are baffled at how someone thought either was a good idea, but we have to educate better. Not only do we need to explain that these are harmful, but also WHY it is harmful. It might be time to get creative and join the tik tok community as a way to disseminate accurate health information. What are you waiting for?

Social Media

Social media can be a wonderful avenue for spreading information and education with a wide audience and at a rapid pace. However, when the information being transferred is opinionated, advice-driven, and extremely inaccurate, the results could be harmful. Healthcare providers are tasked with providing education that is factual to their patient population and does so as often as possible. In fact, patient advocacy is what we do but when providers have to compete with the masses on social media, news outlets, and word of mouth, it can become quite difficult to meet as many people who will listen. 

As a result, more healthcare companies and providers are utilizing social media for its wide-reach and positive aspects as a way to provide the public with accurate educational content. This could be a good option as a middle-ground, given how difficult it can be to seek out accurate data online. Think about how hard it can be to find the perfect academic research journal article you need for your topic-chances are, that these are not the resources the public is seeking out. Not to mention, they are probably difficult for many to understand. People want information that is fast and easy and may find themselves frequenting sites such as WebMD, which is not a trusted or reliable source. 

What now?

What can nurses and other healthcare providers do to help combat the trend of misinformation? We can provide reputable sites to the public that are trusted and reliable, should they want to search for information. The option is always there to provide them with research studies, but instead of expecting them to read and understand it, perhaps provide a bullet list of highlights from the article. While scrolling through social media, engage in conversations that you see are inaccurate and share your expert knowledge or provide access to reliable sources. 

Closing Thoughts

Having access to limitless information at your fingertips can be challenging. Despite the need for reliable and reputable sources, they may be harder for the general public to locate when they are seeking quick and easy information. This challenge will need to be accepted by those in healthcare to demonstrate a more creative approach to introducing accurate health information and/or sources to the public when they are able. 

What are ways that you provide accurate information to your patients and/or the public? Do you utilize social media to promote information sharing that is accurate?

References

1. COVID-19-related misinformation on social media: a systematic review

2. Online Health Information: Is It Reliable?

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Krystle Maynard

About Krystle Maynard, BSN, MSN, DNP

Krystle Maynard is the creator of a health-related website and has been a nurse for over a decade. She has specialized in medical-surgical and critical care nursing, in addition to having a long-standing history of being an adjunct faculty member for a college of nursing. Her business focuses on healthcare content writing (such as blogs, E-books, emails, academic course work, and educational content for healthcare personnel and patients). Krystle also provides healthcare content writing, leadership consultation for healthcare organizations, as well as tutoring and mentor services for undergraduate and graduate nurses. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and children and her two favorite hobbies are traveling to various destinations (mainly beaches) and concerts.

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My sister called me one night, a few years ago, crying, telling me she had leukemia. I told her she did NOT have leukemia. She’d gotten some bloodwork done and was doctor had called her with them. Her white count was slightly elevated, so she googled it and went down the rabbit hole until she came across someone’s blog journaling their cancer story. That person had received their chemo tx and their white count was up. I told my sister that the chemo made her white count go up, and she said “exactly, she has cancer and her white count is up and so is mine so I have cancer”. I asked her if the doc had told her to fill a script for antibiotics for the bronchitis she was diagnosed with (she did) and to repeat the labs in 2 weeks (she was told that). I told her the white count is up due to the bronchitis infection, not cancer, and to never look up just one abnormal lab value with no context. ABX worked, she felt better, and repeat labs were normal. I like being right LOL. 

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

The internet has exponentially increased the spread of bad information when it comes to healthcare and searches are especially prone to confirmation bias.

There is malignant misinformation (conspiracy-eque nutters), self-serving misinformation (people selling a false narrative to profit off), and benign misinformation (people posting things they don't quite understand to try and help). It's the latter that concerns me the most because these are the ones it is harder to combat. I see examples on this site (even this thread) of things that are posted that aren't quite correct yet people may read and take for gospel. I often hear from patients that their cousin's best friend's former roommate is a nurse and told them X. Nurses are the most trusted of professions but sometimes posts I see make me cringe.

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