Social Media Professionalism and Boundaries for Healthcare Professionals for Health Practitioners facing a Council or Board investigation, complaint or allegation

Yes. The authorities apply their standards to conduct wherever it occurs, and the course opens with the myth of personal versus professional accounts for that reason. A post that identifies a patient, crosses a boundary, or reads as contempt for patients or colleagues is conduct whichever account carried it, and the Nursing Council’s guideline and the Medical Council’s statements say so.

Yes, and its remediation produces its own evidence: the post removed and the removal dated; accounts reviewed and the review documented; a disclosure reported where one occurred; a reflection on why the boundary was crossed and on impact rather than intention; a course with a reflection on what changed; and a presence that now shows the standards being kept, done early and without being asked. No provider is accredited by any Council or Board, and no course decides a matter. What every authority, a Committee and the Tribunal weigh is dated, targeted remediation with reflection that engages your own code — and this course is written to the ground every authority’s standard shares on this subject, so the connection to yours is plain. Check the wording of any direction with your indemnity insurer, union, professional association or lawyer before you rely on it.

Yes — before anything goes to your employer, your Council or Board, a Professional Conduct Committee or the Tribunal, and before you reply to anyone online. Your indemnity insurer, your union or professional association, or a lawyer should read a response before it is sent. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and no course determines the outcome of a matter.

Identifiable means recognisable, and the test is who could recognise the patient rather than whether you meant them to. In a country the size of New Zealand a date, a place, a condition and a detail can be enough, and the Nursing Council’s guideline says a patient can be identified even when no names are used. The course’s lessons on what counts as identifiable and on “de-identified” stories cover this.

Deletion is the first step, and the course treats it as early action that counts. It is not the whole remediation: a deleted post may already have been kept by someone, and the authority reads for what has been understood — why it was posted, what the impact was, and what has changed. The removal dated, the accounts reviewed and a reflection written are what the ninth section sets out.

It can become one, and the course’s fourth section shows how: a connection, a message, reassurance given outside the consultation, contact that grows over time. The authorities read a boundary crossed online as they read one crossed in the room. Responding to a boundary concern — stepping back, documenting it, telling someone — has a lesson of its own.

You are, and the course’s fifth section covers freedom of expression and professional responsibility together. The Tribunal has accepted that the right is engaged, and held that it gives way to some extent to professional obligations where comments touch on your practice. What the authorities read for is how a view was expressed and received: whether patients read it as the profession speaking, whether it read as bias or discrimination, and whether a disclaimer did anything.

Restricted membership is not privacy, and a screenshot leaves a group in a moment. The course’s sixth section is social media in the workplace and with colleagues, with group chats and messaging apps as a lesson, and the authorities read a remark in a group as they read a remark anywhere.

What was posted, sent or shared, and when, without minimising it; who could have seen it and who did; the standard from your authority’s own document, by its heading; the impact on the patient, the colleague or the public in their terms; why you posted it, as best you can now see; and what has changed, with dates. Reflecting on impact rather than intention is a lesson in the course.

This course is conduct online in all its forms: identity, confidentiality, boundaries, personal views, the workplace, and the complaint. Professional Boundaries is the boundary with patients wherever it is tested, mostly in the room. Confidentiality is information and disclosure in every setting. A practitioner whose concern arose from a post, a message or an account starts here.

All 18. Every authority under the Act applies its standard to online conduct, several publish a specific guideline, and the Health Information Privacy Code runs alongside for every profession. The course reads the Nursing Council’s guideline and the Medical Council’s statements in their own words and the rest alongside.

The course is 2 CPD hours, self-paced, with twelve months’ access from purchase. The certificate is issued on completion, dated, with the course title and the CPD hours, for a response, a portfolio or your recertification.