The Pros and Cons of Healthcare Professionals Following A Patient on Social Media

So.. as social media has become a prominent part of our everyday lives, healthcare professionals have a new issue that is taking the forefront. And that is whether or not they should follow or friend their patients on social media.

From a patient's perspective, it can be downright spooky to have their doctor or the doctor's  affiliated hospital start to follow them on, say, Twitter. From a healthcare professional's view, they're human as well and have interests outside of work. Yes, healthcare professionals can and ofttimes do put in extremely long hours. They still have to relax and let off steam, just like the rest of us.

Yet, hospitals across the nation are looking towards setting up Social Media Policies, which in essence will say that doctors and other professionals are not to friend or follow a patient on a social media site unless that individual and the patient had a friendship pre-dating the professional relationship. Breaking this down, say I'm a nurse and you're a local real estate broker who has a photo on various billboards throughout the region. We've known each other since grade school, so therefore it would be acceptable for us to be friends on Facebook. Let's say, however, that you're a plumber who has been seeing my employer for healthcare for several years now. We didn't attend school together, so when you send me a friend request or I “follow” you on Twitter, that's crossing the line.

The pro of following a patient on Twitter would be that by seeing the patient outside of the office setting for a mere 12 minutes every so often, the doctor or other professional gets to better know the patient. By getting to know a patient outside of the office, a doctor could let the patient know that instructions on taking a newly prescribed medication had been misunderstood, for example.

My thoughts are that so the medical provider can have a full picture and get to know the entire being of his/her patient, following or friending someone on a social media site is the best means of doing this. Especially for older folks such as myself, having memory problems due to a medical issue, it would be ideal for my doctor to be able to let me know if I've misunderstood something I was told.

Labraheeler

I have a dog. His name is Rocky. When I got him at 7 weeks old, the people I got him from didn’t know what kind of dog his dad is, as his mom had been impregnated by 2 different males. So, upon arriving home I posted a picture of him on my Facebook page.
I received several opinions as to what Rocky could possibly be mixed with, Australian Shepherd, Blue Heeler (from my daughter), and a few others. I’d never heard of Blue Heelers, so decided to research the breed, paying close attention to the temperament. I also wanted to find out if there was any special considerations I would have to take into account regarding training, meals, habits, etc.
What I learned is that Blue Heelers (aka Australian Cattle Dog, Red Heeler or Queensland Heeler) are extremely intelligent, loyal, and protective. Because certain breeds have to be away from their handler in order to perform their “job”, herding, retrieving birds, ducks, chasing racoons, etc., they have to be able to figure out ways of getting around obstacles they may encounter without a human to guide them. And, believe me, Rocky is a problem solver!
He is a very keen animal, constantly observing his surroundings and should something be out of place, gives a low “WOOF” to alert me of the fact. He also wants to know what he should do– whether he should remain on guard or can he relax while remaining vigilant just in case?
Rocky has a strange sense of humor, which makes me laugh at his antics. He’s not the type of dog that goes running and rolling in anything he sees, but because of his level of intelligence and problem solving abilities, I am more often than not amazed at how he figures out what to do.
For example, I would put him in the bathroom when I’d leave to go to the doctor’s because I don’t believe in crating dogs, and he wasn’t housebroken yet so I could not let him wander around the apartment while I was gone. Three weeks of my doing this, and (as anyone who has a dog knows!) I went to the bathroom. Rocky naturally has to accompany me, and he starts to sniff around. He discovers a pj top that I’d hung on the door handle, so he grabs it with his mouth and gently pulls. Discovers that it moves! Yay!!!!
Because it moved, he slowly started walking out of the bathroom, keeping the pj top in his mouth, and closed the door behind him as tight as it would go. The pj top prevented the door from closing tight, and once it wouldn’t move, Rocky proceeded to let go of the top, and scampered away from the door. It was almost as if he was saying: “Ha! Got you now! How do you LIKE being locked away?”
No matter how much I called him to come open the door, he would not come near the bathroom.  What he didn’t realize is that I have the capability to turn the knob and get out by myself. I’d just wanted to see if he would “release” me from the prison he’d put me in!

My Dog is a Weird Character

Every dog, just like every human, has its own little quirks that make him/her endearing and special. Rocky is no different.
From the day that I brought him home at age 7 weeks, I’ve been totally amazed and flabbergasted at some of the things he does. I have allowed him to sleep on the bed with me since day one, and since at seven weeks he was too tiny to jump on the bed, I slept on the sofa so he wouldn’t get hurt jumping off if he needed a drink or had to use the training pad while I slept. The very first morning after bringing him home, I woke to being smothered. Yep, he’s an alpha! He was laying right on top of my face covering my nose and mouth so I couldn’t breathe.
It’s hard to tell that a puppy that young is growing, especially when you’re around them every day.  The day I realized he had grown was the day he had his back legs resting on the couch, front legs and paws on the floor and he was resting his chin on the coffee table. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a photo of that because as soon as I reached for my phone, he moved. His curiosity about what I was doing wouldn’t let him let me get that great shot!
Then, I started taking him places with me– to the grocery store, the dog park, the library. And, his first trip to the vet. He enjoyed the excursions each and every single time, and because he had fun, he would become super excited when he knew where we were heading! He begins to pace, quiver, jump towards the windshield, and has managed to learn how to turn on my hazard lights. I’ve learned to watch and as soon as he turns them on, I’m reaching up to turn them off. We’ve fought over the window being open/closed when it’s cold outside. He will stand on my lap, with his front paws on the door panel and move my side view mirrors– both passenger and driver’s sides! How he manages to switch the lever is beyond me.
I’ve gotten accustomed to the funny looks I see when coming out of a store to get back in the car. Why am I getting these looks? Because people are amused to see Rocky sitting in the driver’s seat, looking straight ahead as if he’s going to drive and is patiently waiting for me to get in. I even had someone ask me if he did this by himself or if he’d been taught. What it was was that while Rocky was sitting in the driver’s seat, he looked in the rear view and side view mirrors, like he was looking to make sure no one was behind him so he could safely back up!
Here lately, though, he’s doing something a little bit even strange for a dog. While I’m driving, he will climb onto the console to sit by me. And then I feel a pressure on my driving leg, where he’s placed his paw. He’s trying to help me make the car go faster! One time, he was so impatient that he picked his leg up and put it down two or three times, as if to say, “We’re not going fast enough! Can’t you make this thing go any faster?”
We’ve gotten into a daily routine where first thing in the morning, as my body is saying that it’s time to get up and Rocky senses this, he comes over and starts licking my hands or face. This morning, along with waking me up with good morning kisses, I woke up to having a nearly 70 lb. dog crushing my chest! I should have gotten a Pomeranian….. they don’t weigh nearly as much.

Starting Out

So…. I decided to try becoming a freelance writer. The writing portion of this whole thing is not the issue, as I have more than enough to say on just about any topic there is. However, some words of advice to the newbies out there!

First off, I recommend Elna Cain’s course, Writing Your Way to Your First $1K. It’s chock full of great tips and hints. However, do NOT do as I did, and as I was going through the course, try getting set up. And, do not set up your website until you have everything ready to add, including samples of your work.

Reason why is because of the simple fact that your site represents you as a writer, and if you don’t have anything on it, it’s not going to look well for you. Well, I was having fun trying to get my site connected to a domain, especially since I am,  well, broke at the moment.

Google Domains offers a real good deal on pricing: $12 for one year and you get to set up what you want your name to be. Of course, all domain hosting sites do this, but the free ones will generally add their name to the end of your URL, so it would look like this: http://www.purelyinnovativewriting.net/wix.com instead of: http://www.purelyinnovative.net/

I can’t tell you how many different website builder sites I went to, trying to find a theme I liked. I’m still searching, as we speak. The biggest problem is not building the site, but getting it connected to the domain, unless you’re building a site with say, Bluehost or Weebly and have decided that you’re going to purchase a domain name with them.

Your final result is never going to be truly finalized, as you’ll add content and change graphics, in attempts to drive new subscribers or followers to your site, which will result in getting clients.

So, the way I would start out is:

1. Decide on what type of services you would like to offer, as there are several and you can change these at any time.
2. Decide what your passions are, as these can form your “niche” or specialty. You’ll also want to take into consideration what your hobbies are, what type of work experience you’ve had in the past and build upon those to create that niche which is yours.
3. Get some good head shots of yourself and upload to your computer.
4. Create a logo. There are plenty of free sites available for creating this.
5. Decide on what you want to convey with your photo of yourself. I have a blog/newsletter titled “Twisted Politics”, in which I explore how politics got started and how we, the public, can make our elected officials accountable to us. So, I wanted it to appear as if I was coming out of a fog, and I’m pretty sure that’s what my background photo conveys. 

There you have it. I’d love to hear from you on what experiences you’ve had in getting started, and any tips that may make it easier for others wishing to join this fascinating world of writing!