What are staff up to online, and why should HR care? To date, there has been little research conducted to explore staff members’ professional and personal habits on social networking sites abd the impact this may have on the organisations they work for. The findings of a recent study published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, revealed that Registered Nurses (RNs) may be using social networking sites in ways that challenge the ethical boundaries of the profession.
Sara Levati MSc RN, of the NMAHP Research Unit, Glasgow and part of the Caledonian University in UK, assessed 124 nurses’ Facebook profile pages—studying data that was unrestricted and publicly available. One-fifth of Registered Nurses had profile content that was accessible to the public.
Most nurses were fairly private about the information that they shared—only posting about plans for holidays, hobbies or personal interests. The majority publicly disclosed information about their home town and locations, but was more reluctant to share information about personal relationships and family.
The Italian group was more revealing with their posts than the UK group. Some nurses shared information about personal attitudes towards working practices. Few nurses from both the Italian and UK group commented on topics that relate to healthy behaviours such as cancer screening; this was seen as positive, harmless in content, and non-disruptive to their work. One UK nurse made public comments about alcoholic-related behaviour, and two others disclosed pictures of a salacious nature.
According to the research, those that shared more personal information may be engaging in ‘risk-taking behaviours’ that could have negative effects on their work life and expose them to added vulnerability. Results from the study also suggested that RNs from both Italy and the UK are still unaware of the possible professional implications of their social networking.
So HR should issue guidance in clearly delineating personal and professional comments online, to reduce any potential ethical, legal and professional issues that can arise from staff social networking.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
