The Ethical Decision-Making Process in Healthcare Social Media Use

OPTION 1. Social media, web and mobile technologies are increasingly used in healthcare and directly support patient-centred care. Patients and their relatives/significant others benefit from disease self-management tools and as a means to contact others in a similar position to themselves. When used cautiously, social media can provide obvious advantages for health professionals such as professional networking, clinical education, and patients' health promotion. However, when used unwisely, social media has its disadvantages such as violation of patients' confidentiality and privacy and can lead to formidable consequences. Read the following case scenario and use the Markkula Framework for Ethical Decision-Making to document the decision-making process that you would implement in response to the situation described in the scenario. In your answer, you must demonstrate how you have implemented each step of the Markkula Framework to arrive at an ethical decision and support your actions by the evidence available in the literature. SCENARIO Sebastian is a hospital orderly who has demonstrated a genuine interest in his job in the operating room suite of a large metropolitan hospital. The following photo was posted to his Facebook page where he expresses pride in being part of a team who looks after very ill patients. The photo is shown below: Operating Theatre The patient did not give consent for the use of his image and the staff in the operating room pictured also did not provide consent. The photo breaches hospital policy with states emphatically that staff are not permitted to use photographs taken in the work areas of the hospital in social media pages without the express permission of the media and communications manager of the hospital. There is an extensive social media policy available and the requirements are stressed at employee orientation which Sebastian is recorded as having attended. You are the Health Services Manager in effective control of the operating room suite at the hospital and the matter has been referred to you by the Media and Communications Manager following a complaint from a member of the patient's family who saw this image on the Facebook page of one of her friends who is also connected to Sebastian on Facebook. APA7 REFERENCING STYLE Griffith university Australia