Should Nurses Use LinkedIn?

I have been reading hospital social media policies lately (I don’t recommend it as light reading), and I’ve come away deciding that most nurses cannot legitimately use LinkedIn without violating them.

Why? Hospitals are running scared from HIPAA, so they are creating sweeping online/social media policies—so sweeping, in fact, that it’s a good idea never to indicate online where you work, just in case. There is no shortage of “Facebook firing” stories in all fields: a typical scenario is either “employee calls in sick, employee posts photos on Facebook of drinking at the beach instead of lying at home in bed drinking Gatorade, employee gets canned” or “employee bashes employer on Facebook, someone rats employee out (alternatively, employee was dumb enough to have boss friended on Facebook when posting such), employee gets canned.” Regular online employer identification issues are hugely magnified for nurses because of HIPAA.

Also, I think nurses and teachers are held to a higher standard off the clock than other professions. Evidence that we may drink and swear when not at work is not considered kindly.

Whether that is true or not, though, the obvious way to escape many of these issues is to avoid associating yourself with your employer online. At all. Anywhere. By any means. Not on Facebook, not on Twitter, and definitely not on Foursquare. But LinkedIn? That is supposed to exist for the sole purpose of identifying you with where you work.

In theory, it’s a good idea. Nurses can go there, associate with current colleagues, network for other opportunities, and share ideas and information with other nurses. In practice, most LinkedIn users not only associate their online selves with where they work, but also hook up their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Bingo. Your coworkers can now find you anywhere online, and anything you say anywhere online is also associated directly with where you work.

I operate by the theory that avoiding associating myself with my hospital by name is the best way to go. Anyone can figure it out if they’re interested enough, but I’m not going to to name my employer, and I think it’s the safe path for most healthcare workers, particularly in the current climate. It is too difficult to keep all the plates in the air if you think you’re going to have a separate persona on your blog or Twitter or whatever; if your updates are ever imported, if you ever cross-post a link, if anyone you know on either network either cross-posts a link, if anyone leaves a comment with your name in it…your cover is blown.

All of which I have considered and decided LinkedIn is dangerous from an HR standpoint. Nurses who use the Internet only for networking are probably safe, but many of us use it for personal use, and in many cases it no longer matters: hospital policies say nurses cannot identify their employers at all online. Interestingly, I looked on LinkedIn and found that the HR employees penning the policies had LinkedIn profiles, but that’s neither here nor there.

Just something to consider.