Estimated read time: 5.5 mins
Your newly-launched digital edition of Riskwise is here. It’s an exciting change that we’ve made for a number of reasons, but overall I’m hoping it’s another big improvement to your membership with Dental Protection. This digital edition of Riskwise offers interactive content such as videos and links to webinar recordings, all viewable on any device of your choice.
Riskwise has been produced in print for many years. Reading habits move on and we think it’s time to recognise contemporary ways of consuming content by switching to a digital format and offering you more options for reading Riskwise. Accessing Riskwise digitally fits in with the realities of today’s clinical practice and means you can access the content at times that are convenient to you.
Of course, environmental considerations have also played a key role in this move. By moving to digital only, we will be substantially reducing our CO2 emissions and reducing paper usage. There will also be cost savings and these will go towards enhancing your protection with us.
As for the other content of Riskwise, it’s business as usual, with our traditional collection of case reports and thought-provoking articles that I know you find so useful.
I hope you find this edition interesting and helpful, and do get in touch with any thoughts, comments or suggestions on this digital edition, via publications@dentalprotection.org.
There has been a substantial growth in the use of social media platforms in healthcare in the past decade. They are now an integral part of many healthcare professionals’ working lives with far reaching consequences. Defined as the creation and exchange of user-generated content using internet applications, it is being used to:
The risks are well documented. Uppermost is the spread of misinformation; healthcare professionals must be diligent in assuring veracity of information before sharing it. The spread of false or misleading information on social media is a growing concern. Fake news is part of modern vocabulary. Some reasons why facts can be distorted on social media include:
Other risks associated with social media include the threat to privacy and confidentiality, addiction and mental health issues such as anxiety and low self-esteem.
An interesting observation is that individuals often feel they can be more open in expressing views and opinions in cyberspace than they would do in person and frequently without proper regard to risk and related dentolegal consequences. So, why do people do things on the internet that they wouldn’t do offline?
A commonly cited theory in this regard is the “online disinhibition effect” – a phrase coined in 2001 by Suler. The increasing anonymity using an online persona can lead to disinhibition, which can have devastating effects on their career and blurs professional boundaries that then erode the professional persona.
It can be benign. Examples include sharing personal feelings, supporting strangers online and undertaking charitable tasks. It can also be toxic and lead to cyberbullying, harsh criticisms, anger and the expression of hatred or threats in online forums. These can be explained by the greater anonymity online, the lack of visual cues and eye contact and the cloak of invisibility that makes people feel less responsible and accountable for their actions. Professional bodies can use this information and/or images for disciplinary proceedings if it or they are deemed to have brought the profession into disrepute.
Writing in 2016, Suler suggests that: “We could draw a comparison to the effects of alcohol. Once liquor loosens up inhibitions, people might show the sensitively sentimental side of their personality – or their inner angry drunk. It’s tempting to say that disinhibition releases what people ‘really’ think and feel inside.”
Social media allows us to ‘play’ with image and identity. We have supported members who find themselves the subject of investigations following images of drunkenness, inappropriate behaviour at events and other inappropriate content.
When it comes to clinical images, the principles of consent require a patient to first have capacity to agree to sharing their clinical image, it must be voluntary, and the patient should have adequate information about the risks and benefits of sharing the content.
Consent in the social media world should include discussions about the public nature of image distribution and the future loss of control of that image once shared. We know that a fundamental aspect of the ethical principle of consent is the right to revoke consent at any time; patients effectively surrender this right given the distributive nature of social media.
When social media first began, no-one knew what effect it would have on users. Today, we live in a world where, like it or not, our professional lives are influenced by social media. In Simulacra and Simulation (1981), the philosopher Jean Baudrillard argued that human beings are now unable to see the world as it really is. More alarmingly, how long before we no longer see ourselves as we really are? It is a slippery slope. What we should strive for is authenticity and we need clear and unambiguous guidelines on what it means to be professionally authentic.
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