Live tweeting by ambulance services: a growing concern

Abstract

Despite advances in technology being a driver of paramedic professional development, particularly over the past decade, the introduction of new forms of technology appears to have presented paramedics with some professional challenges. Paramedics, pre-hospital clinicians, and ambulance service providers in both the United Kingdom and Australia, have begun using social media technology to communicate what they do to the general public. Unfortunately some of the material that has been communicated appears to breach professional standards of practice, and therefore has the potential to cause harm to the patient, the individual paramedic, and the paramedic profession more broadly. This article will present the rationale behind why this behaviour is unprofessional, ethically and legally unsound, and why it must cease. We offer a tool that will assist paramedics, and other healthcare professionals, to practise safe and professional social media use in their workplace.

A human rights perspective on the use of social media by the ambulance services

“…It may be the case that news is instant, but news still reports public interest stories and Smith's (2019) opinion does not justify the tweeting of non-public interest cases. There have been occasions where Twitter use by health Legal © 2019 MA Healthcare Ltd services has been shown to be helpful to inform the public, such as during major emergencies like terrorism (Baron and Townsend, 2017;Cotton et al, 2019); however, these are uncommon and extreme examples and by no means imply that everyday incidents need to be reported by health services. Tweeting of these events might be considered appropriate 'engagement with the public.'…”

“…Tweeting of these events might be considered appropriate 'engagement with the public.' Providing health information of a patient or patients would not (Baron and Townsend, 2017).…”

“…The HCPC supports the use of social media and highlights a number of benefits of social media use (HCPC, 2017); but Baron and Townsend (2017) argue that 'benefits' such as public education or promoting the profession only have a legitimate foundation if they do not exploit patients as a means to an end. Indeed, the author has encountered several tweets, such as the example in Figure 1, which breaches professional standards and the 'Intention to Tweet Matrix' advised by Baron and Townsend (2017) that proposes a basis for safe tweeting by health professionals. The tweet in Figure 1 is deeply concerning for several reasons.…”

“…The tweet in Figure 2 is, on the face of it, an innocent celebration of new life and a happy occasion; however, by showing the face of mother and child and giving the baby's name, the family in this picture are fully identifiable. The Baron and Townsend (2017) Decision to Tweet Matrix suggests that tweets posted for promotion of one's account or their employers are exploitative and, furthermore, those containing pictures from scene or the exact dates and times of incidents should not be tweeted. Tweeting such pictures from scene or incidents involving patients also raises issues for health professionals, particularly in the areas of power and consent.…”

“…It is not merely a matter of opinion-these standards are matters of law and, therefore, fact. Baron and Townsend (2017) highlighted issues with corporate tweeting in this very journal arguing that some corporate tweeting was crossing the line into a breach of professional standards by actions such as tweeting photos from scene, tweeting demographic patient data such as the age of the patient and location of the incident, and even tweeting from scene while the incident was ongoing-all activities which could constitute a breach of the privacy laws.…”