Nurses Beware of Facebook and Twitter

The Nursing and Midwifery Council of United Kingdom has issued a warning on health workers specifically nurses and midwives to be extra careful when using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The advisory was issued because the regulator is increasingly receiving enquiries about online conduct and improper use of Facebook in particular, which have already lead to a number of nurses and midwives being investigated and even struck off.
It comes after a community psychiatric nurse was struck off for “conducting an inappropriate relationship with a former patient”. He had contacted the woman on Facebook two weeks after meeting her in the course of his work, but then “blocked” contact with her after they had a sexual relationship.
In another story, a nursing student was expelled after she posted a photo on Facebook of herself with a human placenta.
According to Prof Dickon Weir-Hughes, chief executive of the NMC, “The Nursing and Midwifery Council is committed to public protection and ensuring nurses and midwives make the welfare of those in their care their first priority at all times.
“I would advise nurses and midwives to exercise caution when using social networking sites. They could risk their registration if they share sensitive information, make inappropriate comments, or befriend patients online.”
The NMC advice on social networking includes the following suggestions:

1. Never put confidential or sensitive information on social networking sites, especially if it identifies patients.
2. Whether or not you identify your work role online, be aware that all your activity online can reflect on your professional life.
3. Don’t accept friend requests from patients, or use social networks to build or pursue relationships with patients or clients, even if they are no longer in your care.
4. Do not post pictures that have patients in them.
5. Keep personal and professional social networking as separate as possible.
6. Consider everything you post as public, even in ‘private’ Facebook discussions.
7. Social networking sites should not be used for whistle-blowing or raising concerns – instead follow the NMC’s guidance on raising and escalating concerns.
8. Don’t discuss work online, and especially avoid talking about patients or colleagues.
9. Don’t simply accept the preset privacy and sharing settings on Facebook, think carefully about what you want to share with different kinds of friends.
10. Remember you can take action if you find you are the target of abuse; there are options available for blocking people from interacting with you.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council estimates that 355,000 of its 660,000 registered nurses and midwives use Facebook.

Source:http://nursingcrib.com/news-blog/nurses-beware-of-facebook-and-twitter/

Filipina nurse inherited $2 million

MANILA, Philippines—A Filipina nurse inherited $2 million from mysterious American heiress Huguette Clark, a news report said.

Hadassah Peri received cash to  buy properties, which include a $700,000 house in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and a $500,000 home in a golf course in the Jersey Shore, the New York Daily Times said in a report.

The report also said that Clark, who was worth $500 million, gave Peri money to buy upper East Side pads for her children.

Clark  died on May 24, aged 104, leaving behind empty mansions and a dispute over her fortune.

She also reportedly gave gifts to the relatives of her lawyer, Wallace Bock.

Clark, inherited his father’s fortune, a US senator and a copper mining tycoon. She grew up in a New York mansion with 121 rooms.

Reports said she lived in isolation and refused to be photographed. She was said to live in recluse after her childless, short-lived marriage at age 22.

Her last photograph known dates to the day her divorce came through, August 11, 1930.

Clark  spent the last 22 years of her life in New York hospital rooms, with no known illness.

With a report from Agence France-Presse

Source:http://globalnation.inquirer.net/4710/filipina-nurse-inherits-2m-from-american-heiress

DoH apologizes for delayed stipend of nurses in the provinces

By Anna Valmero
MANILA CITY, METRO MANILA—The Department of Health (DoH) has apologized for the delayed stipends of the nurses in the provinces.
DoH Assistant Secretary Dr. Enrique Tayag assured nurses deployed under the Department of Health’s Registered Nurses for Health Enhancement and Local Service (RN Heals) will receive their P8,000 monthly stipends within this week.
The DoH has already fast-tracked the requirements necessary for the release of the funds earmarked for RN Heals project. The agency guaranteed that for the succeeding months, nurses under the RN Heals project “will be paid on time.”
RN Heals seeks to make essential health services available to all Filipinos by training and deploying 10,000 unemployed nurses in poor or remote communities that has limited or lacks access to healthcare facilities and services.
The communities were those under the conditional cash transfer program of the Department of Social Welfare & Development.

Aside from the DoH allowance, the nurses may also receive a monthly stipend of P2,000 from local government units who have funds for extra stipend.

Source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/doh-apologizes-delayed-stipend-nurses-provinces-051311940.html