Social media concepts and impacts

Social media has become a hot topic in the corporate world because of its divergent application and use in various companies. One of the major impacts of social media on companies is its effect on an organization's hiring or firing decisions. According to recent trends, many employers are using social media to monitor their employees as well as screen job applicants. In some cases, employers use social media to post job opportunities in the organization and gain a competitive advantage over their rivals.

When considering the use of social media by both employers and employees, there are various concerns that emerge. The most important concern is whether employers may monitor these sites to determine employee loyalty or whether employees are entitled to have the right to privacy in their posts either at home or work. According to the article, the determination of either concern is entirely dependent on legislations and company policy. Consequently, there is need to review and update company policy regularly because both the law and social media continue to evolve constantly (Riske, 2010).

In my view, the basis for determining an employer's hiring and firing decisions through the use of social media should be based on up-to-date company policy. The policy establishes clear and succinct directions on the use of media or the Internet, especially social media, in the workplace. The existing law and company policy proves to be critical elements in determining any legal case on the use of social media by employees because they guide important decisions such as employee's right to privacy. With the growth of social media, particularly Facebook, as fundamental business and personal networking tools, employers should strive to establish Internet policy. The pain management clinic I work for has established a social media policy that only permits the Internet to be used for work-related searches and blocked all sites.

Legal Issue Involving a Nurse:

One of the recent legal issues involving a nurse was the death of a six-year-old patient due to dehydration. The child was sent home with his parent from the emergency department at Parkview Health Hospital at 9:30 P.M. The attempts to wake up the child by his mother the next morning were unsuccessful resulting in a visit by paramedics who brought the child to the hospital at 6:46 A.M. Resuscitative efforts by the nurse at the hospital were terminated approximately 20 minutes later since the patient had died. It was later established that the patient died because of dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea from C. difficile.

Following this discovery, the child's parents filed a lawsuit against the hospital for breach of the U.S. Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) in the Indiana District Court. Based on this legislation, one of the basic requirements for hospitals is a suitable medical screening examination for patients who need evaluation or treatment at the emergency department. While the legislation does not establish the details of a suitable medical screening evaluation, it focuses on the standardization of the way emergency patients are handled. EMTALA was used by the Indiana District Court to determine whether the hospital had an established screening process for the patient's symptoms. The court also sought to determine whether the established screening procedure was applied by the hospital to this patient in similar way to other emergency patients with the same symptoms.