Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Confidentiality, Accountability, and E-Professionalism in Relation to Facebook

Studies found high social media use among students, ranging from 66.9% to 98.7%.

“Studies that assessed SM use among different types of HCPs found high use among students, from 66.9% to 98.7% [40,43,50,51,60,61,64-66,68-70,102]”

Loosening accountability is a danger to e-professionalism from two points of view: eroding public trust by providing poor quality of information on social media and damaging the professional image.

“According to some studies in this review, loosening accountability can be seen as a danger to e-professionalism from two points of view: eroding public trust by providing poor quality of information on SM [39,106,117] and damaging to the professional image [43, 45, 51, 56, 57, 59, 64, 66, 68, 70, 73, 102, 106, 112].”

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].”

Potential damage to professional image has been depicted by students as concerns about repercussions of their posts on career development or future employment, since employers are checking social media profiles of candidates.

“Potential damage to the professional image has been depicted by students as concerns about repercussions of their posts on career development or future employment, since employers are checking SM profiles of candidates [43, 45, 51, 56, 57, 59, 66, 68, 70].”

34% of nursing students were aware of other students who had breached patient confidentiality on Facebook.

“However, 34% were aware of other students who had breached patient confidentiality on Facebook [43].”

Among nursing students, all students knew that posting patient names or pictures was a breach of confidentiality.

“In a study among nursing students, perceptions of confidentiality existed on the level of knowledge; all students knew that posting patient names or pictures was a breach of confidentiality.”

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].”

Among nursing students, the phenomenon of distancing was described; the existence of unwise posting on social networking sites was widely acknowledged, and students tended to attribute such behavior to others.

“and the phenomenon of “distancing” was described among nursing students, while the existence of unwise posting on SNSs was widely acknowledged, students tended to attribute such behavior to others [43].”

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.”

Students depict potential damage to professional image as a concern about repercussions of their posts on career development or future employment because employers check social media profiles of candidates.

“Potential damage to professional image has been depicted by students as a concern about repercussions of their posts, on career development, or on future employment since employers are checking SM profiles of candidates [43, 45, 51, 56, 57, 59, 66, 68, 70].”

Loosening accountability is a danger to e-professionalism from two points of view: eroding public trust by providing poor quality information on social media and damage to professional image.

“According to some studies in this review, loosening accountability can be seen as a danger on e-professionalism from two points of view, eroding public trust by providing poor quality of information on SM [39,106,117] and damage to professional image [43, 45, 51, 56, 57, 59, 64, 66, 68, 70, 73, 102, 106, 112].”

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].”

Surveys that captured students' self-report of posted unprofessional behavior reported witnessing the investigated examples with varying frequencies.

“Surveys that captured students’ self-report of posted unprofessional behavior (eg, evidence of being intoxicated, illegal drug use, posting patient information, sharing clinical images inappropriately, and depictions of an illegal act) reported witnessing the investigated examples with varying frequencies [32,42,43,55,59,62,64,73,114,118].”