Potential ethical issues that could be of concern with nursing use of social media.

Sample Answer

While social media offers significant opportunities for professional networking and public health education, it introduces complex ethical dilemmas that can jeopardize a nurse's career and patient safety.

According to guidelines from the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), the two most critical ethical concerns are the breach of patient confidentiality and the blurring of professional boundaries.

1. Breach of Patient Privacy and Confidentiality

This is perhaps the most frequent ethical and legal pitfall. Nurses have a fundamental ethical duty—grounded in the principle of fidelity—to safeguard any information learned during the course of treatment.

The Dilemma: A nurse may post a story intended to be heart-warming or educational without realizing that "contextual clues" (e.g., a specific diagnosis, a room number in the background of a photo, or a unique patient characteristic) can lead to the patient being identified.