Guidance for nurses over Facebook
Nurses are being advised to avoid Facebook relationships with current or former patients in the New Zealand Nursing Council’s draft code of conduct, now open for public feedback.
Nursing Council chief executive Carolyn Reed said the purpose of the code, developed in 1994 and in need of an overhaul, was to outline minimum standards of conduct and give the public a standard to which nurses could be held. ‘‘It is important that nurses have a clear idea of what is expected of them in both their professional and private lives.
‘‘Nurses are trusted to care for people when they are at their most vulnerable because the profession as a whole is trusted . . . if a nurse does not adhere to the expected standards, there may be a complaint about their performance and it can affect the reputation of the profession.’’
The draft code was breaking new ground in providing guidance on a range of issues that had not been problematic in 1994, social media being one of the most complex changes that nurses were encountering, she said.
Within principle four of the code, ‘‘Respect health consumer’s privacy and confidentiality’’, six points gave added guidance to the use of social media, including not discussing practice issues or colleagues on social networking sites such as Facebook, not uploading photos or videos of colleagues or health consumers that might identify them, and avoiding social-networking relationships with current or former patients in general.
University of Otago department of media, film and communication senior lecturer Erika Pearson said while businesses had begun to monitor Facebook in an internal, low-key way, this was an example of making a policy around the use of social media more explicit.
Dr Pearson said Facebook had become an issue in the United States. In January 2011, four Kansas nursing students were expelled from school after a photo of them was posted on Facebook with a human placenta.
Southern District Health Board’s acting chief nursing and midwifery officer, Tina Gilbertson, said while she was not aware of breaches of confidentiality at a high level in regards to social media in the southern district, sites such as Facebook posed a significant risk. ‘‘So many people use it now. We need to be ahead of the game.
‘‘It’s a high risk and it is timely to update [the code].’’
Mrs Reed said the council hoped the code would help nurses make wise judgments in situations.
The draft code, consultation questionnaire and background document can be found online at nursingcouncil.org.nz/index.cfm/ 1,213,html/draft-code-of-conductfor-consultation
Submissions close on February 25.