Ethical Quandaries and Facebook Use: How Do Medical Students Think They (and Their Peers) Should (and Would) Act?
Abstract
Background: Despite widespread use of Facebook among medical trainees, little is known about how students regard the ethical quandaries that arise from its use. Methods: In 2011–2012, Penn State College of Medicine and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) conducted a national survey to explore how students were engaging with social media, including their beliefs about handling ethically challenging situations that can arise with Facebook use. Results: The response rate was 30% (2,109/7,144). Students expressed pragmatism about Facebook use and were mindful of ethical perils and professional responsibilities. They recognized the sensitivity of personal health information and expressed intent to proactively address problematic situations with peers. While “friending” patients was largely perceived as problematic, students suggested strategies to safely integrate Facebook into future practice. Conclusions: Our study confirms previous research demonstrating ubiquitous use of Facebook among students, while suggesting that students are aware of potential ethical pitfalls of Facebook misuse.
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Some students acknowledged potential usefulness of social media in medical practice, patient education, health promotion, and interpersonal communication, if applied in a safe and responsible manner.
“Some students acknowledged the potential usefulness of SM in medical practice, patient education, health promotion, and interpersonal communication, if applied in a safe and responsible manner [47].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
George et al found 44% of US medical students stated they should and would react if a patient sought their medical advice via Facebook.
“George et al [47] investigated US medical students’ attitudes about what positive role SM can play in improving communication with patients. A total of 44% of respondents stated they should and would react if a patient sought their medical advice via Facebook.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
Breaches of patient privacy were a concern for many different types of health care professionals.
“Breaches of patient privacy was a concern for many different types of HCPs [34,43,47,57,91,94,97,107,111,119].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
Blurred boundaries between professional and personal spheres of social media use, with concerns about exposure of private life or separating private and professional profiles, have been presented in numerous studies in this review.
“Blurred boundaries between professional and personal spheres of SM use [34, 39, 47, 51, 69, 78, 79, 91, 96, 97, 106], with concerns about exposure of one’s private life or separating private and professional profiles have been presented in numerous studies of this review.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
Numerous studies document blurred boundaries between patients and health care professionals, and between students and faculty.
“Numerous studies document blurred boundaries between patient and HCPs, and between students and faculty [40, 43, 47, 59, 64, 65, 68, 70, 73, 75, 78, 82, 85, 98, 100, 105, 107, 114, 117].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
George et al reported cognitive dissonance, a disconnect between what they thought they would do versus what they thought they should do.
““Cognitive dissonance,” a disconnect between what they thought they would do versus what they thought they should do was also reported by George et al [47].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
Blurred boundaries between professional and personal spheres of social media use, with concerns about exposure of one's private life, presenting details of personal life, or separating private and professional profiles, have been presented in numerous studies in this review.
“Blurred boundaries between professional and personal spheres of SM use [34, 39, 47, 51, 69, 78, 79, 91, 96, 97, 106], with concerns about exposure of one’s private life, presenting details of personal life, or separating private and professional profiles, have been presented in numerous studies in this review.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
Compromising confidentiality concerns were described in numerous studies in this review, especially about breaches of patient privacy or possible risks of violating HIPAA online.
“Compromising confidentiality concerns were described in numerous studies in this review [34, 43, 47, 57, 91, 94, 97, 107, 111, 119], especially about breaches of patient privacy or possible risks of violating HIPAA online.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
Students and residents have a cognitive dissonance approach to lapses in their professionalism while using social media, a disconnect between what they thought they would do versus what they thought they should do.
“Students and residents have a “cognitive dissonance” approach to lapses in their professionalism while using SM. It is a disconnect between what they thought they would do versus what they thought they should [47,80].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
Boundaries are blurred between patients and health care professionals, and between students and faculty.
“Boundaries are blurred between patients and HCPs, and between students and faculty [40, 43, 47, 59, 64, 65, 68, 70, 73, 75, 78, 82, 85, 98, 100, 105, 107, 114, 117].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
Several studies in this review have recognized the need to include students in the development of guidelines or to assist in education with somebody of their age group, providing personal experiences and more of a nonauthoritative approach.
“Several studies in this review have recognized the need to include students in the development of guidelines [47] or to assist in education with somebody of their age group, providing personal experiences and more of a “nonauthoritative” approach [49].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
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- Authors
- George, D. R., Navarro, A. M., Stazyk, K. K., Clark, M. A., & Green, M. J.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Association of American Medical Colleges (US)
- Brown University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Green, Michael J.
- Venue
- AJOB Empirical Bioethics
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-04-03
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 68-79
- ISSN
- 2329-4515 (ISSN-L)
- 2329-4523
- OpenAlex
- W2089632246
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 1.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- AJOB Empirical Bioethics (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Pennsylvania State University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- Facebook, social media use, medical students, medical ethics, ethical dilemmas, professional responsibility, patient privacy, personal health data, peer behavior
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