New social media rules for students at Health
Students at Health should think twice before sharing photos of their clinical training, clerkships or work placement projects on their own social media accounts. Because many rules need to be taken into account when dealing with patients or citizens. New guidelines make clear what is okay – and what is not.
Are you allowed to use Messenger to tell your fellow students about your experiences from an operation? Can you take photos of runners at a running event organised by your clerkship organisation? Or of a patient with a rare disease if that person has given you permission? And what should you do if a patient contacts you privately?
It is easy to be in doubt about what is okay and not okay on social media when you move from a university environment to e.g. a clerkship or similar at a hospital, dental clinic or in a municipality. There are also very noticeable differences in which information you are allowed to share and the situations in which you may use your smartphone for social media, depending on whether you are representing a workplace or find yourself in a reading room, and also in regard to which information you are sharing.
Health has therefore adopted a range of guidelines for our students which cover clinical training, clerkships and work placements etc., so they can avoid the pitfalls.
Important that the students act professionally
Smartphones and social media are ubiquitous in every young person's life. So they are also in the students’ pockets or bags when they arrive at a workplace.
“Knowing how to use – and not least, how not to use – social media is an important part of the professional practice which the students must learn as soon as they arrive at a workplace. The students must bear in mind that they represent ‘real’ doctors, dentists and companies as soon as they put on that doctor’s white coat or a name tag or in other ways have contact with someone on behalf of an organisation. Just as they also represent the university when we send them somewhere,” says Charlotte Ringsted, vice-dean for education at Health.
There are some study programmes where the students need to particularly mindful of their role.
“At the Aarhus School of Dentistry the clinic is located in the same place as the students have their classes, and they can therefore forget that they are taking on a professional role when dealing with patients. But for the patients it’s crucial that the students act in the same way as they’d expect of an employee who has completed their education. We hope that the teaching staff and supervisors will draw the students attention to the fact that we have some guidelines for this area, so the students don’t get into trouble,” says Charlotte Ringsted.
Guidelines for all students at Health – but in two versions
The new guidelines apply to all students at Health who are undertaking clinical training, clerkships and work placements. However, the fact that work assignments and situations differ between the various disciplines is reflected in the guidelines, which are therefore available in two versions: one for students in clinical training/clerkships (dentistry, medicine and other dental programmes) and another for students in work placement projects etc. (sport science and public health science).
The guidelines are available on all of the study portal websites and all students will also receive instruction in them from the autumn semester 2019.
The guidelines have been drawn up in the Forum for Education at Health.
Contact
Vice-dean for Education Charlotte Ringsted
Aarhus University, Health
Mobile: (+45) 9350 8222
Email: charlotte.ringsted@au.dk