Reflection

Social media usage can be used advantageously by medical professionals, however today seemingly unlimited number of social media platforms have also increased the likelihood of certain risks for medical professionals.

Social media can be used to maintain professional connections, publish new medical techniques, and share information for the greater good. For example when I visited Kuwait as part of a delegation team through University Health Network in Toronto, I used a YouTube video to demonstrate some of the techniques used by North American Laboratories.

As part of Generation X, and a medical professional, for the first 15 years of my carrier I didn’t use any social media platforms. Popular social media platforms that my friends and colleagues use include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In particular, many of my personal and professional friends use Facebook so I felt a need to create a Facebook account. Having two teenage kids might have influenced this in a way, because I notice how quickly and easily they’re able to access information about events, world news, and subjects of personal interest. My Facebook account was opened to keep in touch with my school and university friends, as well as family members that live other countries. Until recently all my Facebook friends were either my family or my personal friends. I also have a LinkedIn account, which I maintain strictly for professional use. Until I started the Health Services Master’s program with Athabasca University, I didn’t have a Twitter account, I started my twitter account two weeks ago.

As a Medical Laboratory Technologist and as a member of the College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario, I am obligated to follow the CMLTO code of ethics through my professional and personal conduct. According to the CMLTO, the Code of Ethics “ applies to MLTs at all times in all dimensions of professional and personal conduct including technical and nontechnical fields such as education, administration, quality assurance and research” (Code of Ethics, 2019)

Throughout my carrier as a Regular Technologist, as a Senior Medical Laboratory Technologist and as the Pathology Charge Technologist, I always tried to conduct myself according to the CMLTO professional guidelines and the Code of Conduct. These principles include but not limited to, respect, diversity, dignity, consent, safety, accountability, professionalism. (Code of Ethics, 2019) Even after I started my social media accounts like Facebook, LinkedIn, I thoroughly check the posts and comments I posted. I wanted to design my social media identity around my values as a professional in order to be responsible in using social media accounts. Therefore, I strictly avoid posting any comments about my work place, work, or about my co-workers. I also avoid posting about my political stand or ideas. When I posts my personal life pictures, I am careful about the pictures I post. According to the Journal article by Lindsay A Thompson and Kara Dawson in their “The Intersection of Online Social Networking with Medical Professionalism” “The medical trainees (83.3%) listed at least 1 form of personally identifiable information and only a third were made private, and some accounts displayed potentially unprofessional material” (Lindsay A. Thompson, 2008)

In recent years I’ve had a dilemma with my Facebook account; I changed my job two years ago and now, I am the Charge Technologist in a Pathology Laboratory, and some of the Medical Laboratory Technologists who were my Facebook friends are now reporting to me. Both people who were my friends on social media previously, as well as other staff send me the friend requests, and my dilemma was how to respond to these requests. I did not want to add people who report to me to my personal social media accounts, but at the same time I didn’t want to refuse the requests and give a wrong impression. Finally I did accept most of those requests and build a principle to never to send request to the technologists who reports to me.

I feel that I am more restricted in my Facebook account now, however I will approach this restriction to create and build my social identity according to my college guidelines and principles.

References

Code of Ethics. (2019). Retrieved from College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario: http://www.cmlto.com/index.option=com_content&view=article&id=1201&Itemid=616

Lindsay A. Thompson, K. D. (2008). The intersection of Online Social Networking with Medical Professionalism. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 954-957.