Essay Sample on Nursing and Social Media Use at Work

Introduction

Social media refers to the use of internet-based applications to make and switch user engendered content (Obar, & Wildman, 2015). Obar and Wildman (2015) also consider that social media describes the websites and applications that are intended to facilitate the rapid sharing of information from one person to another in real time. Kung and Oh (2014), in their study found that the population of internet users is growing at an alarming rate. This is because the internet has reduced most of the communication barriers such as boundaries, time, expenditures and other difficulties. With the high speed at which technology is growing, it is evident that in the coming future, the number of social media users will have increased promptly (Kung and Oh, 2014).

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Nursing refers to a profession in the health care sector that is based on caring for individuals and communities by maintaining and ensuring their quality health standards. It also involves conveying of information to the patients and refining public health (Moorhead et al. 2013). Like any other profession and business activities, nursing is a field that needs to transfer knowledge and capture a huge population worldwide (Moorley & Chinn, 2016). This means that nurses should be well equipped on the use of social media platforms such as tweeter, Facebook, YouTube, and Linkedin among others (Kung, & Oh, 2014). In the modern world, most of the health care facilities are using social media for care delivery by posting health information on various social media blogs such as the wikis (Keckley, & Hoffmann, 2010). Also, nurses can use social media to review information (Peck, 2014) on the internet, which saves time that would be used to go through numerous pages of huge books to search for information.

Moreover, social media is a significant tool when it comes to communication of disease outbreaks, its prevention, and cure (Hamn et al., 2013). However, most of the health organizations primarily in the rural areas do not allow nurses to use the internet to access the latest information. They rely on substantial hard books for relevant information in their work (Carroll, & Bruno, 2016). Nurses need to be updated in their filed since this can be helpful to them and the patients as well (Househ, Borycki, & Kushniruk, 2014). For instance, health institutions such as the World Health Organization have various social media platform accounts where they update their followers on the current health issues (McCaughey et al. 2014). For example, during the outbreak of influenza, the organization used a tweeter to communicate about the epidemic where it has more than 11 million followers.

Besides, nursing, like any other profession, requires that one seeks information and more knowledge over time (Ventola, 2014). Since it is also a dynamic field where new diseases come up, and more research is continuously done to find out the cure and prevention of various illnesses and conditions (Courtney, 2013). Therefore, nurses can utilize social media to form professional groups where they educate each other besides being at different geographical locations (Fraser, 2011). Also, the nursing students can also ask various questions concerning their profession which will assist in improving the health sector even in the future.

However, although social media has enormous advantages in the field of nursing, it has also some disadvantages that may discourage the members of the public and health institutions as well from relying on the internet for health information (Cronquist, & Spector, 2011). For instance, some of the information on the internet may be incomplete, lack references and may also be informal. This makes most of the internet users, that is, both the nurses and the patients doubt the information (Ferguson, 2013). Also, some of the authors of the books and articles on the internet may be mysterious which creates doubts about the materials they provide.

Another limitation of the use of social media in nursing is the violations of patients' privacy (Barry, & Hardiker, 2012). Some nurses may intentionally or unintentionally disclose patients' information through the posting of photos, videos or even exposing them through the comments in various posts in the social media platforms (Casella, Mills, & Usher, 2014). This may lead to a vast number of negative consequences such as making the patients lose their dignity or even increase the level of stigmatization (Schmitt, Sims-Giddens, & Booth, 2012) especially for patients who have HIV & AIDS. Also, it can destroy the reputation of the nurses and the health setting at large. Nurses may also lose their jobs and their registration.

Besides, social media can also cause a distraction to the nurses at work (Nyangeni, Du Rand, & Van Rooyen, 2015). This can lead to miscalculation of the medications and administration which can lead to severe damage or death of the patients (Andersen, Medaglia, & Henriksen, 2012). One of the recent research studies shows technology gadgets such as mobile phones and desktops can be a significant cause of distraction to the nurses when attending to the patients (Antheunis, Tates, & Nieboer, 2013). A good example is when a nurse if on Facebook or tweeter, and he or she forgets that he is supposed to be visiting a patient (Ressler, & Glazer, 2010). This would affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the services given to such patients.

Conclusion

In summary, social media has emerged to be one of the best communication tools b the nurses in the modern world. Also, it has made it easier for them to learn new ideas in their profession and conduct research especially b forming professional groups with nurses from all over the world. However, although technology is continuing to advance, the use of social media as a communication tool by nurses may be left behind if specific changes are not made. They should improve on the ways through which they communicate and embrace internet etiquette not only for their advantage but for the benefit of the patients and the general public at large.

References

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