Tagging into Trouble

Ok so our task was to write a story or article about one of the rules for using social media.


Our rule was: Always consider confidentiality when talking about people if you work in a profession with confidentiality laws.


So here is our story! :)

Thea and Nadine

Tagging into Trouble

By Nadine Rutow and Thea Hanson-Orr

Today we saw again how easy it is to make a mistake through social media when working in a profession involving confidentiality contracts. Maria S (23) was a nurse from Tameside Hospital working in the emergency department.

Maria's friend Bob M (25) had an embarrassing accident at a married lady friends house, after beginning to get intimate with her in the front room he heard a key in the front door and panicked. Abandoning his clothes, he tried to make a run for it and on the way managed to trip on a table leg, and break his nose on the arm of a chair on the way down.

During his trip to the emergency department, he saw his friend Maria S on duty, he told her his story and expressed his embarrassment to which she expressed her amusement.

On Bob's arrival home, he visited Facebook to find himself tagged in a status by Maria which read 'I saw Bob at work tonight, he somehow managed break his nose while running away from his new shag's husband! Hahaha!'. 

As Maria should have known, this was in fact a breach of the Confidentiality Act and unfortunately for her she forgot that she was friends with members of the legal department at Tameside Hospital on Facebook, who felt obliged to report her to the General Medical Council for breaching a patients confidentiality through social media.

Maria has now lost her nursing licence and is unable to ever register with the GMC again, making her nursing qualification useless. It just goes to show that you should always be aware of what you are writing on social media websites, what may seem like an innocent story between friends, if seen by the wrong person could lead to huge consequences for your career and life.