Sunday, February 27, 2011

Online identity

It's interesting to think that millions of people worldwide can have access to the things I write within a few clicks of a mouse. I often wonder whether the things I can say are all that interesting.

Twitter has exploded of recent years, and micro-blogging has really taken off. I recently got retweeted by Kirstie Allsop (off the telly) when I offered advice to women about emergency cesarean sections, and wondered then about the legalities of an online presence. A friend once pointed out the possible consequences of being too open online, too much information can easily lead to patient identifying information and their confidentiality can easily be breached. This of course would be unethical, and bad for patient care, and there is a risk to my professional career.

I have seen recently a few examples of when colleagues and friends get a bit too close to this, and it is occurring more frequently. Over the last few years hospital Trusts have started including social networking policies in their guidance and have started to ban he uploading of pictures of the workplace, especially of staff or patients, no matter what the context.

So although my work life is incredibly interesting and exciting, it's also a big secret for the online community! My warning to my friends and colleagues online is to be mindful of your online presence, that what you tweet/facebook becomes the permanent property of someone else, and you may give away more of yourself than you mean to. It is certainly not worth your career, unless you can make a mint out of blogging!

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