Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media:
Its Effects on Professional Boundaries and Patient Care
Rebecca A. Betz
Lone Star College-Montgomery
21st of March 2016

Social Media: Its Effects on Professional Boundaries and Patient Care

Over the past decade social media has become more of a part of everyday life for the
average person. Advantages such as keeping in touch with friends and family, obtaining
information on a variety of topics, and sharing knowledge has helped propel social media sites to
the popularity it has today. Social media has had a huge impact on the nursing community as
well. Many social media sites provide valuable and reliable information for nurses in an effort to
increase the quality of patient care. However, the use of these sites by healthcare workers have
created many ethical concerns and violations that are becoming all too common in the nursing
field. One of these ethical concerns has become about maintaining professional boundaries with
a patient when using social media.

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As a nurse you are privy to patients personal and private information. Many times that
information is something a patient normally wouldnt tell their friends or even their family
members. Due the nature of the job, it is common for patients to feel close to their nurses,
especially if they are in the nurses care for an extended period of time. Therefore, the nurses
responsibility of maintaining professional boundaries is essential to providing patients with
safe, ethical, and quality nursing care (Aylott, 2011). It becomes very easy to cross these
boundaries when social media is involved. Is it ethical to friend a patient on a social media
website? Would that be crossing the line of professional boundaries?
In coming to an answer or solution, it is imperative to remember just why professional
boundaries are important: they help maintain rationality, order, and predictability when adhered
to in the nurse-patient relationship (Aylott, 2011). It is the nurses ethical obligation to avoid
blurring the line of the nurse-patient relationship and boundaries (Lachman, 2013). The risks
involved include giving certain patients special treatment, disclosing too much to a patient, role
reversal, and super-nurse behavior (Aylott, 2011).
Although abstaining from social media all together seems a bit excessive, it is an
effective option that some have ended up choosing. The benefit is that if a patient asks to be
friended on a social media site the nurse could simply yet kindly decline and give the honest
reason of not having a personal page. On the downside, abstaining from social media could result
in the nurse not being able to make use of the vast benefits these site provide for improving
patient care.
If a nurse decides to abstain from having social media accounts in an attempt to maintain
professional boundaries with patients, it would be helpful and wise if the nurse still be

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knowledgeable about these sites. Social media may be useful when referring patients to
continued medical care. Recent data shows that the search for information on health care is now
the third most popular activity a person does while online (Lachman, 2013). It is therefore
beneficial to patients if nurses are able to guide them to accurate and helpful information and
resources on social media. This may include helping connect patients to support groups and
useful educational material regarding a patients specific health condition (Henderson & Dahnke,
2015).
The struggle of maintaining professional boundaries with patients has been a concern for
nurses before social media sites existed and will continue to be an important part of nursing care.
Education on benefits and consequences of crossing these boundaries will remain crucial when
making decisions on patient care and interactions, whether it be face to face or online.
References
Aylott, M. (2011). Bluring the Boundaries: Technology and the Nurse-Patient Relationship.
British Journal of Nursing, 20(13), 810-816.
Henderson, M., & Dahnke, M. D. (2015). The Ethical Use of Social Media in Nursing Practice.
MEDSURG Nursing, 24(1), 62-64.
Lachman, V. D. (2013). Social Media: Managing the Ethical Issues. MEDSURG Nursing, 22(5),
326-329.