SOCIAL MEDIA MISCONDUCT IN HEALTHCARE

It’s a whole new era in the technology world and millennials are showing us a thing or two about the limitless possibilities of what we can do with the click of a button. Massive progress has been made in the communication front and the world has shrank to the size of our smartphones.

With the endless opportunities this offers, we are easily bound to ignore the pitfalls that arise. When it comes to the dangers of technology, focus has mainly been on crimes such as identity theft, financial fraud, terrorism and exposure of children to pornography.

However, a new crime is slowly rearing its ugly head. One committed by the very professionals entrusted to safeguard the most vulnerable in society. These are the healthcare professionals that care for all of us when we are indisposed.

Being a patient is one of the hardest positions to be in. To put your trust in strangers to care for you in a manner that even a family member may not be able to is no mean feat. Very few people in adulthood would let their trusted spouse give them a bedpan. Yet in the hospital, they will trustingly take off their clothes for a stranger to touch and probe them at will.

This demonstrates the level of power the care providers wield over their patients. It is for this reason that The Hippocratic oath and The Nightingale Pledge have endured the test of time to protect the patient!

The oldest and binding of all documents to physicians, is the Hippocratic Oath. The classic Oath is quoted as, “What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.”

Subsequent modification of the oath to keep with the times has not changed anything with regard to patient privacy. It still maintains that, “I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know.”

The nightingale pledge expressly states, “I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping, and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling.”

One of the most solemn yet heart-warming ceremonies in the medical profession is the oathing ceremony. Passing the final examinations in the medical school is not a passport to practice medicine in Kenya. The somberness with which this ceremony is carried out reflects the great responsibility that practitioners bear when they go forth in the world and touch patients.

The new doctors are inducted into the profession by an overview on the responsibility they are about to sign on to, the Code of Professional Conduct that they shall ascribe to and the disciplinary measures in place that deal with deviance.

The ceremony is conducted in the presence of peers, witnessed by the Dean of the school of medicine and the new graduates take the oath, reciting after a member of the medical fraternity who sits in the board of regulatory authority, the Medical Practitioners and Dentists’ Board. During the university graduation ceremony, it is only the doctors who must publicly recite the oath as they accept their degrees.

This practice is not unique to Kenya. It happens all over the world with procedural variations but with a common goal. It is therefore extremely infuriating to see practitioners who have utter disregard for the same. Social media has greatly enhanced information sharing, learning, consulting and updates in the world of medicine, in real time. This has greatly benefitted the patients with improved care and better outcomes.

However, we must all rise and take issue with health care providers who are willfully embarrassing the noble profession by callously exposing their patients. Malawi set the pace by suspending a nurse who took a selfie in the labour ward with an exposed mother behind her on the delivery couch. It is imperative that proper investigation and appropriate disciplinary measures be taken to safeguard our patients.

Just when I thought it could not get any worse, a friend shared with me a tweet from a Nigerian doctor in Enugu, who made fun of his patient in labour for passing stool during childbirth. Let’s just say I am still flaming with anger. As an obstetrician/gynaecologist who spends her days helping mothers walk through the miracle of bringing forth a life, I was extremely miffed, as I believe my colleagues would too.

Barely a day later, another allegation of a social media post made by health professionals, all smiles in an operating room with the patient right behind them found its way to my phone and I had to pose and ask the hard questions. Where are we going wrong? Do our medical, nursing and clinical medicine students appreciate the Bioethics and Jurisprudence courses? Where are we on mentorship with regard to professional conduct?

The developed world already has clear guidelines and policies regulating social media interaction for its practitioners. The General Medical Council (GMC) in the United Kingdom has a whole section under its “Ethical Guidance” rules. The Medical Board of Australia is equally up to par with its guidelines. The American Medical Association clearly spells it out under the Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 2.3.2.

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board is a signatory to the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) 2017 protocols that were adopted by member countries. One of the protocols was “Regulation of Social Media in Healthcare”. Kenya is in the process of developing well-spelt out regulations on social media interactions for practitioners. I hope the same will be adopted by other regulatory authorities across the professions.

The message must be clear to all and sundry: millennialism will not protect you. Patient privacy is sacrosanct and must always be regarded as so!