To address “how I want to present myself in social media” I started by looking at it from the opposite end of the spectrum (ie “what should I be careful not to do”). To do this I started by looking into the policies of my employer, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH). Their social media policies state very clearly that if I were to post anything on social media identifying myself as a VCH employee I would need to post a disclaimer along the lines of “the views and opinions are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer”. I imagine this is standard for most health care organizations. In my opinion, it seems safest practice to just avoid mentioning my employer in any social media posts to avoid any potential miscommunication.
I also perused through the BC college of physiotherapists standards of practice and ethical guidelines. There was not much there in terms of social media presence beyond not “friending” patients, but one thing that did stand out to me was the following (from the Ethical guidelines on the college website): “members of the physiotherapy profession have an ethical responsibility to commit to maintaining and enhancing the reputation and standing of the physical therapy profession…” Although this does not directly pertain to social media, you could certainly argue that using social media as a platform to discuss physical therapy and its potential benefits would help to achieve this desired outcome.
In terms of if we are obligated as health care professionals to “speak up” on social media- this one I have trouble with. I think that in principle, yes, as educated individuals we should use our knowledge/education about the health care system by passing this information on to the public. Social media is obviously one easy platform that can do this, and potentially in a way that reaches a large number of people. However, I am also fairly skeptical about the ability of “posts” or blogs to actually change peoples minds. I have seen a large number of “anti-maskers” on Facebook and I do not think that engaging them in a discussion or calling them out on social media would have any effect, given the fact that people tend to seek out information to confirm their own beliefs/biases. If anything I feel like this tactic has the potential to create more animosity and vitriol. Personally I think that the only way to deal with these situations is a more in-person one on one discussion in which both sides can feel like they are being heard.
In the future, I hope to use social media more as a networking tool. I have finally updated my years-old LinkedIn profile and I hope to use that to “connect” with other professions who have careers that I admire, perhaps providing me with a way of asking them questions. I think I will also start to link to more news stories relating to health care on my Facebook profile, but only if I feel that they provide truly valuable information to the public (and are not just stimulating controversy).
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