Discuss Latest WCI Blog Post: Please Don’t Post Stupid Things on Social Media–Or You Might Never Practice Medicine Again

[The White Coat Investor]

Now more than ever, you need to be careful with what you post on social media. If you make a mistake, it could cost you big time.

The post Please Don’t Post Stupid Things on Social Media–Or You Might Never Practice Medicine Again appeared first on The White Coat Investor - Investing & Personal Finance for Doctors.



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[Larry Ragman]

While the point of the post is valid, I think in the case of the example cited I would focus on: Don’t do stupid stuff. I imagine most everyone would agree it was dead wrong for a medical professional to deliberately harm a patient. Had that incident been avoided, the social media would have been a non-issue. Still, the post demonstrated remarkably poor judgement.

[Tim]

While the point of the post is valid, I think in the case of the example cited I would focus on: Don’t do stupid stuff. I imagine most everyone would agree it was dead wrong for a medical professional to deliberately harm a patient. Had that incident been avoided, the social media would have been a non-issue. Still, the post demonstrated remarkably poor judgement.

Larry, I would like to use my take on your response to illustrate another rule.
I did not take take example as the medical professional as actually harming a patient. One pin and two jabs, was my only take.
Two completely different takes So be it.
The problem arises with interpretation.

Keep your “Business and Personal completely Separate”. It will serve you well, someone will always have a different interpretation.

People are social animals, hard to do.

[Hatton]

I would say it is very common for a student to have to stick a patient more than once to get blood or start an IV. If the patient is making fun of her then she gets nervous and it becomes more likely. I do not think from the info given we should assume it was deliberate.

[wideopenspaces]

Yeah to me it reads more like, eh this is karma or whatever, not I intentionally hurt someone. But the optics are bad and I can see residencies not wanting to touch her with a 10 ft pole, so to speak.

I don't think this is the same as making antisemitic comments or spreading misinformation during a pandemic killing millions though.

[Anne]

I think she and the school actually clarified it—the policy is if the student misses, someone else more experienced steps in. Which is what happened. She didn’t stick him twice, she missed so the next person did it.

“i failed to step on the brakes so I hit another car”
”i burnt his toast so he had to wait another 10 minutes for breakfast”

in both of those sentences you would assume a mistake so a natural repercussion of that mistake occurred which is I think what happened here but everyone jumped on the horrendous/unforgivable/assault bandwagon.
it was the wrong decision to post, another mistake. But shouldn’t ruin her career.

Everyone with kids needs to warn them about not posting things or even sending potentially incriminating texts/photos to their friends. If someone wants to destroy anyone who grew up in the era of cell phones and social media, the evidence to do so is out there, you just have to find it. I’m very glad I went through childhood/adolescence/young adulthood before social media was a thing.

[Larry Ragman]

I think she and the school actually clarified it—the policy is if the student misses, someone else more experienced steps in. Which is what happened. She didn’t stick him twice, she missed so the next person did it.

“i failed to step on the brakes so I hit another car”
”i burnt his toast so he had to wait another 10 minutes for breakfast”

in both of those sentences you would assume a mistake so a natural repercussion of that mistake occurred which is I think what happened here but everyone jumped on the horrendous/unforgivable/assault bandwagon.
it was the wrong decision to post, another mistake. But shouldn’t ruin her career.

Everyone with kids needs to warn them about not posting things or even sending potentially incriminating texts/photos to their friends. If someone wants to destroy anyone who grew up in the era of cell phones and social media, the evidence to do so is out there, you just have to find it. I’m very glad I went through childhood/adolescence/young adulthood before social media was a thing.

Just focusing here on the impact of the post, I agree the post should not be allowed to ruin her career. Whether or not her miss was deliberate, there was a mistake in judgment here. It was hardly unforgivable. Same with many other dumb things many (me included) have done in the past. But if I were interviewing this person I would directly confront if the act was deliberate, as she implied in the original post, or circumstantial as both she and the school claimed afterwards.

[Turf Doc]

My mind is absolutely blown that people post things online that could be interpreted so poorly, especially in a pseudo-professional setting.

It’s also a giant shame that she was a casualty of the culture war. I didn’t realize that until I looked at who was going for her jugular on twitter and who was sharing the post online…

[Hatton]

I think she and the school actually clarified it—the policy is if the student misses, someone else more experienced steps in. Which is what happened. She didn’t stick him twice, she missed so the next person did it.

“i failed to step on the brakes so I hit another car”
”i burnt his toast so he had to wait another 10 minutes for breakfast”

in both of those sentences you would assume a mistake so a natural repercussion of that mistake occurred which is I think what happened here but everyone jumped on the horrendous/unforgivable/assault bandwagon.
it was the wrong decision to post, another mistake. But shouldn’t ruin her career.

Everyone with kids needs to warn them about not posting things or even sending potentially incriminating texts/photos to their friends. If someone wants to destroy anyone who grew up in the era of cell phones and social media, the evidence to do so is out there, you just have to find it. I’m very glad I went through childhood/adolescence/young adulthood before social media was a thing.

Wow only allowed to miss once. I am so glad I trained at a time when I learned to do the procedures myself.

[Anne]

Wow only allowed to miss once. I am so glad I trained at a time when I learned to do the procedures myself.

Agree

[F0017S0]

That'll likely do some significant damage; unfortunately for [the med student], we live in a world where one's actions and philosophies are consistently under the microscope. I agree with Larry Ragman that [the med student’s] lapse in judgement shouldn't be career ending, but it will leave a mark and her (immediate) future practice is likely to be significantly altered as a result.

[burritos]

Does that include posting shtuff on WCI?

[F0017S0]

Wow only allowed to miss once. I am so glad I trained at a time when I learned to do the procedures myself.

When I drew the kiddos in my studies at my previous place of employment, CPT's got no more than two attempts. After that, it was required by policy to find someone else. But we usually didn't attempt unless we were highly confident in a successful specimen collection, and if we weren't, then we found an RN (or a more experienced lab technician) to do the job right on the first attempt.

[artemis]

Does that include posting shtuff on WCI?

Of course. We need to be careful what we say anywhere online. This is a lower profile website than many, but low profile is not the same as no profile

[childay]

I get stuck at least twice usually.
But yeah not good judgement posting this at all.
I assume medical schools have to be covering this sort of thing right?