Benefits Of Social Media In Nursing

When it comes to planning and designing your nursing home, it’s important to take into account all the different factors that could impact a patient’s stay. From location to equipment and staffing levels, you must consider all possible variables in order to create the best nursing home for your specific needs. In this article, we will provide 5 tips for preparing your nursing home online.

What Is Social Media In Healthcare?

Social media provide HCPs with tools to share information, to debate health care policy and practice issues, to promote health behaviors, to engage with the public, and to educate and interact with patients, caregivers, students, and colleagues. HCPs can use social media to potentially improve health outcomes, develop a professional network, increase personal awareness of news and discoveries, motivate patients, and provide health information to the community.

Physicians most often join online communities where they can read news articles, listen to experts, research medical developments, consult colleagues regarding patient issues, and network. There they can share cases and ideas, discuss practice management challenges, make referrals, disseminate their research, market their practices, or engage in health advocacy. A growing minority of physicians also uses social media to communicate directly with patients to augment clinical care.

A survey of more than 4,000 physicians conducted by the social media site QuantiaMD found that more than 90% of physicians use some form of social media for personal activities, whereas only 65% use these sites for professional reasons. Nearly a third of physicians have reported participating in social networks. However, both personal and professional use of social media by physicians is increasing.

Unlike physicians, pharmacists have been relatively slow to adopt social media. Much of the growth in the professional use of social media among this group appears to involve pharmacist-specific social networks. Surveys have shown that many pharmacists use Facebook. Although this use is most often for personal communications, more than 90 pages on Facebook are related to the pharmacy profession, such as the Pharmacists Interest Page, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Cynical Pharmacist. Only 10% of pharmacists use Twitter, and a search for “pharmacist” on LinkedIn identified 274,981 profiles

Benefits Of Social Media In Nursing

Nurses are welcome to use social media personally, with many potential benefits for both the individual nurses and the nursing community. Popular platforms for nurses include blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and professional forums.
Blogging. Many nurses of all specialties blog as a form of sharing industry insights and daily life as a nurse. For example, there are currently nursing blogs about correctional nursing, the evolving health care environment, health care technologies, nursing school tips, travel nursing, and international nursing advice, among others.

Benefits Of Social Media In Nursing

1. Increase Patient Engagement

Social media gives you the perfect platform to increase engagement with current and future patients. You can provide basic information about your business, and discuss general healthcare and industry topics.

You should already have a comprehensive SEO strategy that includes your website and directories, but social media can help your rankings, as well. An active presence on social media shows the search engines that your practice is credible, and your profile might even rank higher in some search results.

2. Establish and Increase Brand Awareness

As a healthcare provider, you’re going to have a brand no matter what. It’s better if you participate in shaping your brand instead of letting others do it for you.

You can use social media to establish your “voice” and niche. Are you going to be the physician that gives a daily healthy eating tip, or maybe the one that becomes known for posting unique, but appropriate, selfies on Instagram?

3. Educate Your Audience

One of the biggest benefits of social media for doctors is that you can use it to help people with short, engaging and educational posts. Share trending healthcare news along with your reactions. You can also choose different topics (vaccines, heart disease prevention, diabetes management, flu season, etc.) and do a series of posts to educate your audience.

Risks Of Social Media In Healthcare

1. Damage to Organization Reputation

At the same time, inappropriate use of social media that damages an organization’s reputation is also a security issue. For example, per Pendergast, an employee may mention a new product release that the marketing department wasn’t ready to announce. “It isn’t a crime, but they’ve just compromised their company’s competitive advantage by doing that,” he notes.

2. Blurred Boundaries with Patients

Just because you’re posting on social media, some patients might get the idea that you are completely accessible on this platform. You’ll need to set some boundaries.

First, it’s a good idea to keep your personal and professional social media accounts separate. Next, add a statement to your professional account that you will not address patient care issues on social media.

3. Inappropriate Sharing of Organizational Information

The primary security risk is when an employee inappropriately releases any form of company information. “That could be releasing intellectual property, trade secrets, or patient information,” says Pendergast.

4. Breaches of Patient Privacy

One of the greatest risks of physician social media use is the potential for the breach of patient confidentiality. Any healthcare provider is liable under state privacy federal HIPAA laws for infractions.

Even though providers are thoroughly trained on these issues, there are still instances of inadvertent breaches of HIPAA on social media. If you are tempted to discuss a patient’s situation (even in vague terms) on a social site, know the rules and think twice before venturing into murky HIPAA waters.

5. Phishing Risks

Workers in industries such as healthcare are at risk for targeted phishing attacks via social media. [NOTE: “Phishing” is defined as requesting confidential information over the Internet under false pretenses in order to fraudulently obtain credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal data.] “They might seek people on LinkedIn or Facebook who work at a specific hospital and send that person malware,” says Pendergast. This includes email messages and web links that can release viruses. “It’s important to teach employees to exercise a lot of skepticism and view with suspicion any unfamiliar attempt to direct you to a website or to solicit information from you,” offers Pendergast.

6. Employment Issues from Failing to Adhere to Employer Social Media Standards

Speaking of rules, many employers (such as hospitals and clinics) have their own sets of social media guidelines. These will undoubtedly address patient privacy and confidentiality. An employer might also reserve the right to terminate you for posting anything that reflects poorly on the business.

7. Poor Quality of Information

The main limitation of health information found on social media and other online sources is a lack of quality and reliability. Authors of medical information found on social media sites are often unknown or are identified by limited information. In addition, the medical information may be unreferenced, incomplete, or informal. While evidence-based medicine de-emphasizes anecdotal reports, social media tend to emphasize them, relying on individual patient stories for collective medical knowledge. Similar problems exist with traditional online media; however, the interactive nature of social media magnifies these issues, since any user can upload content to a site. Social media users may also be vulnerable to both hidden and overt conflicts of interest that they may be incapable of interpreting.

Measures are available that may be useful in addressing this problem. HCPs can guide patients to credible peer-reviewed websites where the information is subject to quality control. The World Health Organization is leading a request to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to establish a new domain suffix that would be used solely for validated health information. The issuance of this domain suffix would be strictly regulated, and the content of websites with these addresses would be monitored to assure compliance with strict quality criteria. These domain addresses would be prioritized by search engines when providing results in response to health-related inquiries.

Social Media Guidelines For Nurses

If you want to keep your nursing career moving forward, you need to understand what you can and can’t do on social media. Fortunately, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) provides guidelines.1 According to the NCSBN, to avoid violating laws or ethics while using social media, you should:

Build your brand – Are you speaking as yourself, with or without your ‘nursing hat’ on? Tone and context can often be misinterpreted. Building your voice or online persona will help to minimize confusion when it comes to the tone of your comments.

Never Post a Photo of a Patient
It’s a violation of patient privacy to share any image for any reason, even if you have a friendly relationship with the patient. The best practice and the best ethical choice is to never use a personal device to take a photo of a patient.

Transparency – Identify yourself, write in the first person, and don’t be afraid to show your personality. Own your voice. Social media is all about continuous dialogue. Be smart, post smarter.

Never Discuss a Patient Online
You may occasionally feel the urge to talk about a difficult or inspiring case. Reject that urge. Revealing information about a patient—even if you only give partial information—can help people identify the patient, which violates their privacy.

Respectfulness – Exercise discretion and confidentiality when referring to others, including coworkers, patients and clients. Do not post identifiable information and/or content unless you have permission to do so. Avoid harassment, intimidation, abuse or threats (both when posting and responding to posts). Not all conversations are worth participating in. Anything you post online becomes public information and may remain online indefinitely, even if you attempt to modify or delete your post. Avoid fights and personal attacks.

Never Lose Sight of Professional Boundaries
Some patients may choose to “friend” you or otherwise interact with you on social media. While you want to have a good relationship with your patients, you should always maintain professional boundaries when communicating with patients or former patients online. Since the line between professional and personal relationships can sometimes be blurry, it’s always best to consult your employer’s policies or speak to the appropriate manager if you’re concerned about your online interactions with a patient.

Add value – Stick to what you know. Post meaningful comments, and aim for quality. Interested in gaining new knowledge? Ask! Someone will likely post back to you!

Never Assume Any Social Media Is Private
You may have your privacy settings turned up to their highest levels, but if you put something on social media, it’s not private. For example, using a patient’s Facebook page to tell them about a result or even to commiserate in a way that mentions specifics of their condition or treatment is likely to be considered a breach of ethics because it’s impossible for you to ensure others won’t see what you’ve posted. When communicating with patients online, the only 100% safe method is to use your employer’s official internet-based system, like your electronic health record (her).

How to Make Your Nursing Home Online.

There are many different types of nursing homes available online. Before you make your decision, be sure to choose a nursing home that offers great features and services. For example, some nursing homes offer online ordering, which makes it easier and faster to order the correct amount of beds. In addition, many nursing homes have websites that allow you to view and comment on your care plans, check on your loved ones’ health, track your progress through the online hospital system, and more.

How to Get started with Nursing Home Online

Once you’ve chosen a nursing home online, it’s important to get started! Many people find that the process of setting up their nursing home is easiest when they start from scratch. To help you get started, we recommend following these five steps:

Step 1: Choose Your Site

Choose a site that is easy to navigate and has plenty of resources available (like articles or videos about the right types of care for elderly people). You may also want to consider using an outdated website or one that has been hacked in the past.

Step 2: Set Up Your Account

Once you’ve chosen your site and set up your account, it’s time for step number two: Setting up your account. This can be difficult – but don’t worry! We’ll take care of everything for you.

Step 3: Begin Your Services

Now that you have an account and set up your services, it’s time for step three: Loading your services! This will take some time – but don’t worry! We’ll keep track of all the activity so you can see how well things are going.

Step 4: Take a Look at Your Care Plans

Finally, after all this work is done (and we promise it won’t be anything like having last-minute surgery!), it’s time to take a look at your care plans! These will give you an idea of what type of care will be best for your loved ones.

Top Tips for Managing Your Nursing Home Online.

You’ll need to have a plan in place for managing your nursing home online. This includes creating a hospice care plan and ensuring you have all the necessary information and resources to support your patients.

Keep your home clean and organized

Your patients will appreciate having their homes clean and organized, so make sure to take care of this important task before they leave. Your visitors may feel more comfortable if their homes are tidy and orderly.

Keep your guests safe and comfortable

Make sure your residents are safe while they’re away by following up on any safety concerns they may have had. Make sure you keep any doors locked when guests are not present, and make sure there is no risk of harm to them or anyone else in the house.

Have a well-maintained website

Keep your website up-to-date with the latest information about your nursing home, so visitors can easily find what they’re looking for and stay connected with you during their stay. Create a helpful FAQ section on the website for new Residents, as well as updated rosters of residents for reference purposes should an emergency arise (e.g., a death).

Tips for Troubleshooting Your Nursing Home Online.

If you’re having trouble fixing your website, check to see if it’s been updated. If not, make sure you have the latest security patches and passwords set up. And if your website is down, reset your password and check for any safety issues.

Check for any safety issues

Checking for potential hazards on your website can help you avoid problems down the road. For example, if there are reports of dangerous or harmful activities happening in a nursing home online, you can take steps to ensure that wouldn’t happen on your site.

Reset your password if you lose your key

If you lose your key to your nursing home online account, reset it so that you can access your account from any computer or phone!

Conclusion

Whether you’re a nursing home owner looking to start online, or have questions about your website, it’s important to keep your home in top shape. By following these tips, you’ll be able to manage your home efficiently and keep all of your guests safe. Additionally, having a well-maintained website can help you stay up-to-date on safety issues and get back on track if something goes wrong with your website. If everything is going smoothly for you and you need help troubleshooting anything online, Reset Your Password can be a great help. In the end, keeping your home healthy and safe is essential for any business – so make sure to take care of it!

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