To Post Or Not To Post - That Is The Question...

HOW CAN HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AVOID A CAREER ENDING SOCIAL MEDIA “FAUX-PAS”?

Cancel Culture is REAL. In the present climate of intense public scrutiny of healthcare systems, practices, and professionals – for most health professionals, an online or social media presence is considered a greater risk than benefit.

Some users try to dodge scrutiny by creating separate personal and professional accounts applying enhanced privacy settings to mitigate risk – but let’s be real - separate accounts do not guarantee dissociation between one’s personal and professional on-line personas, and privacy settings are provisional at best. Even a small social media “slip” can forever impact your professional reputation and employability and can also result in an erosion in public trust for both your organization and your profession.

Wait! Don’t delete you Facebook, Tik Tok, and Twitter apps just yet! Social media (when used appropriately), is an effective and arguably invaluable tool for healthcare practitioners to share information, network, debate health policy and practices, communicate during crisis, educate, interact with patients, conduct research, engage the public, combat misinformation through accurate health messaging, and promote health behaviors.

Social media is an exploding communication tool, and it is here to stay. As Darwin’s theory implies – we must evolve to survive. While the professional or organizational roles of many healthcare practitioners do not require that they speak out, or maintain a public professional presence, healthcare practitioners should not be silenced out of fear of some sort of social media faux pas.

The solution: E-professionalism. E-professionalism is a term that was coined to remind us that the standards of professionalism we exercise in our day-to-day in-person interactions are the SAME baseline expectations for professional behavior on-line and in social media forums.

The “elevator rule”— if you wouldn’t say it aloud on a crowded elevator, don’t post it on-line!

Know the regulations and accountabilities of your licensing college/authority. Know your professional and organizational codes of conduct, ethics, and professional standards - and follow them. An effective and respected on-line presence is very much achievable when the ethics, professionalism, and integrity demonstrated in your everyday practice is translated into your on-line presence!