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.
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