PURPOSE

The purpose of this assignment is to investigate smartphone and social media use in healthcare and to apply professional, ethical, and legal principles to their appropriate use in healthcare technology.

Requirements

1. Research, compose, and type a scholarly paper based on the scenario described below, and choose a conclusion scenario to discuss within the body of your paper. Reflect on lessons learned in this class about technology, privacy concerns, and legal and ethical issues and addressed each of these concepts in the paper, reflecting on the use of smartphones and social media in healthcare. Consider the consequences of such a scenario. Do not limit your review of the literature to the nursing discipline only because other health professionals are using the technology, and you may need to apply critical thinking skills to its applications in this scenario.
2. Use Microsoft Word and APA formatting. Consult your copy of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sixth edition, as well as the resources in Doc Sharing if you have questions (e.g., margin size, font type and size (point), use of third person, etc.). Take advantage of the writing service SmartThinking, which is accessed by clicking on the link called the Tutor Source, found under the Course Home area.
3. The length of the paper should be four to five pages, excluding the title page and the reference page. Limit the references to a few key sources (minimum of three required).
4. The paper will contain an introduction that catches the attention of the reader, states the purpose of the paper, and provides a narrative outline of what will follow (i.e., the assignment criteria).
5. In the body of the paper, discuss the scenario in relation to HIPAA, legal, and other regulatory requirements that apply to the scenario and the ending you chose. Demonstrate support from sources of evidence (references) included as in‐text citations.
6. Choose and identify one of the four possible endings provided for the scenario, and construct your paper based on its implications to the scenario. Make recommendations about what should have been done and what could be done to correct or mitigate the problems caused by the scenario and the ending you chose. Demonstrate support from sources of evidence (references) included as in‐text citations.
7. Present the advantages and disadvantages of using smartphones and social media in healthcare and describe professional and ethical principles to the appropriate use of this technology, based on facts from supporting sources of evidence, which must be included as in‐text citations.
8. The paper’s conclusion should summarize what you learned and make reflections about them to your practice.
9. Use the “Directions and Assignment Criteria” and “Grading Rubric” below to guide your writing and ensure that all components are complete.
10. Review the section on Academic Honesty found in the Chamberlain Course Policies. All work must be original (in your own words). Papers will automatically be submitted to TurnItIn when submitted to the Dropbox.
11. Submit the completed paper to the “We Can, but Dare We?” Dropbox by the end of Week 3. Please refer to the Syllabus for due dates for this assignment. For online students, please post questions about this assignment to the weekly Q & A Forums so that the entire class may view the answers.

Preparing for the Assignment

BACKGROUND

Healthcare is readily embracing any technology to improve patient outcomes, streamline operations, and lower costs, but we must also consider the impact of such technology on privacy and patient care. This technology includes the use of social media applications, such as Facebook, Instagram, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn on smartphones.

In healthcare today, smartphones are widely used for communication, efficiency, and care. Obviously, a variety of issues (ethical, professional, and legal) from both the personal and hospital perspectives must be considered. SCENARIO

You are a nurse in the emergency room, working the Friday 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, and your evening has been filled with the usual mix of drunken belligerent teens, wailing babies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations, falls, fractures, and the routine, regular congestive heart failure (CHF) patients. Your best friend is texting you from the concert that you had to miss tonight because you were scheduled to work, and you respond to her between care of patients, jealous that she is there and you are not. “What a jerk to torture me like this!” you think to yourself.

It is now 2 a.m., and the medics radio once again, notifying you of an incoming motor vehicle accident victim, ETA of 5 minutes. You sigh and opt to use the restroom, rather than getting that much‐needed cup of coffee, and prepare a room for your next patient. The medics roll in and begin to fill you in. The patient is a 28‐year‐old male, a passenger on a bus that was involved in a crash, leaving the vehicle overturned after rolling over an embankment. There were several fatalities among the bus passengers, and “this victim has remained unconscious, though his vitals are currently” . . . and as you start to focus on the patient, you take a second look. Can it be? It is! The lead singer, Jerod, from the band “Blue Lizards,” who you have adored since you first heard his voice! The band had just left the concert that you had missed last evening when the accident occurred. You quickly text your best friend . . . “Can you believe?” and she responds with “Yeah, right. PROVE IT.” So you quickly snap a picture with your smartphone, when alone with the patient, and send it to her. Can’t hurt, right? Celebrities are “public property,” and that’s a part of their life, right? Just for good measure, you snap a few more pictures of the unconscious singer in various stages of undress and then a shot of his home address, phone number, and demographic information from his electronic health record. You sit your phone down on the bedside table for a minute as you continue your assessment of the patient.