Hello fellow cohorts in the psychiatric mental health realm of nursing. I am a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) student and have been tasked to create a social media or blog post related to the ramifications of social media in healthcare. I frequently see now that many hospitals, health care clinics and home health agencies use social media as a way of marketing their brand. Is this helpful to healthcare, or could this be cheapening the brand? I feel if done correctly can be extremely useful to the healthcare company using this as a marketing technique as it could reach large amounts of people in a now very modern way. It can also be very interactive as well. Hospitals and clinics now use patient portals that have the ability to use email or even microblogging in the form of IM messages from patient to staff for a streamlined way to schedule appointments, ask medical related questions, and even schedule and perform telemedicine visits. If the American Medical Association’s (AMA) code of ethics are followed to maintain professionalism for social media posts, emails and microblogging is this the trajectory we want healthcare to go in – virtual and streamlined? I believe as long as professional codes are upheld and others that don’t have access to patient portals have another option for communication than it is just another way healthcare has managed to keep up with 21st century technology and to keep healthcare relevant and accessible to the masses; especially in the age of COVID I am sure we will see much more telehealth than we possibly could have imagined.
Does all this technology have a downfall to healthcare? Do you feel that it has helped the nursing profession? If you are a PMHNP has it helped your practice as an advanced practicing nurse? I feel blogging could help in my future career as interesting and new material can be presented in a less formal way than journal articles, though I would clearly be looking out for the credibility of said presented material. I think blogging can give a lot of food for thought and something to ponder about in your current career. It’s also a professional way to connect with other professionals and to comment in a constructive and professional manner that could lead to some very insightful discussions that may help current and future practice. I do feel it could potentially hinder my future practice as a PMHNP, as text can frequently be taken out of context if not received well and it is ever so permanent once posted and can be disseminated for many others to read; therefore blogging must remain professional, relevant and credible or it has the potential to ruin you professional career if you do not proceed with caution. Thanks for reading my blog and feel free to comment about the posted questions - I would love to hear what you all have to say!