Being a part of the healthcare social media world has opened my eyes to new opportunities to share experiences and information, to meet new friends, and to challenge myself in the face of new obstacles. The first obstacle I can think of is trying to maintain helpful, consistent content that will maintain a following, while still maintaining privacy. With every post I make, especially after graduating nursing school and starting a new job while I wait to take NCLEX, I find myself increasingly worried about maintaining interest while being acutely aware of HIPPA.
Much like nursing school, my post-graduation job has been full of information, learning experiences, and growth. However, I have an instinctive shyness to sharing all of the information that I am learning due to the fact that the information is extremely niche-oriented. This causes a level of difficulty when it comes to trying to morph my stories and lessons into general content that I feel comfortable sharing online for the safety of everyone involved.
Now, of course in stories I would never mention gender, names, location, explicit diagnoses, or other intimate details - but I still feel this innate urge to keep all of the information hidden within myself "because someone on the planet can crack my code and find out everything that I was trying to conceal while still sharing important, educational content".
In nursing school, it was extremely easy because everything that is learned within each semester is relatively standard among the different programs within the United States. During clinical you are there once a week for a few hours, and do not become as intensely involved as you would if you were working full time on that unit. Also, describing your personal learning experiences is fun and exciting while in nursing school.
"Oh, I did my first Foley today and got it on my first try!"
"Really? I didn't, can you give me some tips?"
I feel as though in nursing school you can only really get in trouble if you are taking pictures of things during clinical that you are most definitely not supposed to be taking pictures of. (There are countless articles out about those situations happening! Be careful with what you post and who sees it!)
- For example, last semester my school sent out an email saying that it stated in the handbook that students were not allowed to take pictures in their uniforms unless and post them to social media unless they were taken by the school for their own media purposes.
So, as a social media "influencer" in the healthcare world, it is difficult to be transparent with your life and experiences when you are internally sworn to "secrecy" and are apparently becoming a work-aholic (*cough cough*: me).
Aside from being busy studying for NCLEX, that is partly why my actual blog posts have been less timely: Because my current life throughout the month of February will be consumed with NCLEX prep (which I already did a blog post about), and working full time.
But don't worry, after NCLEX that will be a massive social media revamp of my blog, Youtube vlogs, Twitter, and Instagram posts #RNBSNbabe ;)
Overall, please understand and practice HIPPA, for yourself and for others. You might not have "ground breaking" content every week of the month, but you are providing safety and security for yourself and your patients. Remember, you aren't working on this degree to have it thrown away by a silly social media post.
Thank you for reading!
- Michelle
#BSNbabe
No comments:
Post a Comment