Professionalism and Social media Inappropriate Conversations or Posts based on Nursing Professional Standards

Professionalism and Social media Inappropriate Conversations or Posts based on Nursing Professional Standards

Nurses have a role in adhering with professional standards while in or out of the workplace, including using social media. Nursing professional standards include ethical practice, professional accountability and responsibility; client-focused service provision, as well as knowledge-based practice (Epstein & Turner, 2015). After going through my social media accounts, I found some posts that might be considered unprofessional. For instance, I had posted a photo of my patient and shared the location of the clinic. While she is my friend, people will know that she had visited the clinic. I also found a comment with my personal opinion regarding alcohol use, which may contrast professional standards. Moreover, I found a post about discontentment with a previous employer. Such information may contradict professional standards because I appear to go against my responsibility. Ethical practice necessitates not sharing details about patients, including personal information, medication, and the times they have been in the medical facility (Koocher & Keith‑Spiegel, 2019).

In the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU), the five components of the nursing process are utilized (Dean, 2018). An example of this would be a patient who presents to the PACU after a shoulder arthroscopy. An initial assessment of the patient shows the patient to be moaning, wincing, as well as tachycardia and hypertensive; this is the first step in the nursing process. The second step would be to provide a diagnosis. What is the problem? The patient reports pain (as 8 on a scale of 0-10) as a result of surgery as seen by increased heart rate and blood pressure as well as pain score. The third step is planning/outcomes, what can the nurse implement as far as interventions and possible pharmacologic strategies to alleviate the patient’s pain and what could the outcomes of said implementations be? The fourth step is implementation. The nurse carries out the intervention that was previously evaluated, in this case the nurse decides to dim the lights, quiet the room, and provide the patient with pain medication per orders given by provider. The last step is evaluation. Did the intervention work? Is the patient’s pain alleviated? This step often requires another assessment to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. The Standards of Practice set forth by the BON guides this nurse process in that the nurse is able to evaluate the problem, consider options for implementing interventions then evaluating the outcomes, all based on the appropriate standards of care put in place.

Reasons for Upholding a Standard of Conduct in the Profession of Nursing at Work and Personal Lives

It is imperative that nurses recognize that they have a legal and ethical obligation to always maintain patient confidentiality and privacy. Professional standards and the law prohibit nurses from electronically transmitting any patient-related image or information (NCSBN, 2019). It is not appropriate to identify patients by their name or different information through a social media post. It is essential to maintain boundaries that adhere to professional standards when using electronic media. This implies that nurses should enforce and communicate professional boundaries with nursing clients in the social media environment. In their personal lives, nurses should uphold nursing standards because this can help safeguard their career and avoid controversies that can put them in conflict with patients or coworkers.