Categories
Testimony

Clinical Guide: Social Media Use for Forensic Clinicians

So I recently received a comment that my concern about forensic nurses’ social media use is “overblown”, which I confess, made me giggle. It’s not, of course, and my own experiences doing this work have only made it clearer as social media becomes more and more entrenched in our daily lives. But if anyone needs evidence that your social media feeds will be parsed apart (even the ones you believe are “private”) and may be brought up at trial, look no further than expert testimony from the Cosby trial last month: I suggest you check out this, thisthis, or even this.

As someone whose whole life is on social media (basically), I am not suggesting you avoid it, but keep in mind that at any time you may have to answer for what’s there (including things you “like”, or are tagged in, and not just stuff you post). And program managers and trainers, if you aren’t providing education on this topic, I would encourage you to fold it in. I am neither seeing, nor hearing about widespread discussion on this topic, and the concerns and potential problems aren’t going to lessen anytime soon.

To make it easier, I have created a new clinical guide on the subject. Hope this helps move the conversation forward.