A Nurse, in a final act of desperation, reached out to fellow healthcare professionals online in a bid to assist in the healing of a chronic wound.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) offer nurses extensive guidance on their conduct online but it seems this case has delivered somewhat of an ethical dilemma for many.
The Nurse involved claimed to have exhausted all other available options including tissue viability and a multitude of second opinions and only turned to a Facebook group for Nurses as a last resort.
The patient, who remains unidentified, was struggling with a leg wound that despite a multitude of treatments had failed to heal. Her Nurse reached out to colleagues online for help but was met with a mixture of comments with some saying she was “thinking outside the box” and others calling it “inappropriate”, a “breach of confidentiality” and “unprofessional”.
According to the Nurse involved the patient provided full, informed, consent for the discussion and the post contained no identifiable information simply an image of the wound, a short description of the issue and a call for help.
The post was later deleted by the community moderators.
Apps like Figure1 (iOS / Android) can provide a forum for healthcare professionals to seek help from the wider community.
What do you think? Was the nurse thinking “outside of the box”, providing holistic care and simply utilising the resources available to her or did she overstep her boundaries as a healthcare professional?
i think although asking the community of nursing students for opinion in cares i rarely a bad thing. The original post inquisition however had no clear statement that content had been gained for either the photo or for their specific case to be openly discussed. i think that this alone was the initial concern of the community
I am not in favour of posting pictures of patients in any form on social media, nor should social media be used to discuss specific patients due to its lack of moderation or validation. The nurse im
sure believed they were acting in the best interest of the patient but the nmc social media guidance does state that it is unnacceptable to discuss matters outside of the clinical area. The matter of consent could not be proven due to confidentiality, it shouldnt have been posted. I dont understand why a registered nurse is on a student page in the first place. The matter should be reported to the nmc, the nurse argues she has done nothing wrong, so she would not have any issues in a formal hearing? She is very honest.