Ethical Issues for Online Health & Social Care
Bloggers
Blog Entry 4: Omozee Ugiagbe (Group 4)
Introduction
Professional communication in the health and social care
community in the form of open blogging is turning out to be more popular on the
internet (Travers, 2018). Despite the potential of reflective practise, sharing
of knowledge and engaging the public, it has serious ethical and safety
consequences (Aveyard et al., 2023). It focuses on health and
social care practitioners are required to know the ethical online safety,
especially in communication within a public online environment. In this essay,
a critical argument has been formulated on issues of ethics and safety involved
to health and social care professionals who use public online blogging.
Moral Implications of Online Blogging in Public.
One of the main ethical issues of online blogging is
associated with confidentiality. Confidentiality has been indicated by
Batchelor et al., (2020) as a core professional
responsibility, and it requires the practitioner not to disclose any
recognisable information regarding service users. Even with anonymisation,
small contextual details can enable the readers to make identifications.
The service users are supposed to be in charge of their own
personal data, and internet blogging can potentially take away that
responsibility in case practitioners post reflective narratives of real life
experiences. Autonomy therefore constitutes an important ethical boundary: as
much as practitioners might desire to be reflective to others, they must see to
it that their practise does not infringe privacy rights of service users.
The second ethical issue is professional boundaries. Online
blogging erases the category distinction between the professional and personal
lives. To illustrate, an unintended expression of personal opinions by a
practitioner might contradict employer regulations or such ethical standards as
are expected in the sector. Also, a practitioner can interact with the remarks
left by people, which can cause unsuitable familiarity or misunderstanding. The
Centre for Mental Health (2025) cautions that professionalism should be
maintained during digital interactions as the online words may be spread widely
and used out of context. Ethical blogging therefore involves high level of
self-awareness and following of professional codes of conduct.
The third ethical issue is one associated with accuracy and
credibility of shared information. Distortion of facts, exaggeration or
unsubstantiated ideas may have a potential to mislead the readers.
Evidence-based practise demands that any information provided by health and
social care professionals be accurate, well-sourced and contextualised
(O’Connor et al., 2021).
Public writing promoted a more sensitive attitude to the ease with which personal storeys could be pushed to the limits of ethics. The advice of the peers suggested the danger of unintentionally providing more information than you wish to and indicated that effective ethical blogging is not a technical ability but rather a contemplative and cyclical endeavour. This is in line with the position of Brookfield (2012) that critical reflection aids practitioners to identify some assumptions and blind spots which can affect their communication (Centre for Mental H
Online Bloggers and Safety Risks and Dilemmas
Other than ethical aspects, there are also great safety
risks to practitioners who engage in public blogging. One risk is focused on
digital permanence. When information is uploaded to the internet, it is not
completely removed no matter how well it is deleted (Edwards and Kotera, 2021).
This permanence poses a safety dilemma: reflective blogging is supposed to be a
learning experience and negative or provocative content is now able to be
stored or shared permanently, and over the long-term, this will have long-term
effects.
Reputation is another major safety risk. Through public
blogging, practitioners are vulnerable to the scrutiny of service users,
employers, regulators, and the general population.
Another dilemma is associated with the further exaggeration
of misinformation. As witnessed before, social media and online influencers
usually provide misleading or inaccurate health information to the service
users (Jalali, 2020).
The Stage 1 critical interaction with peer feedback enhanced
the awareness of these risks. Employees pointed out how conveniently a
misunderstanding may arise in cyberspace and they became more aware of the
importance of being clear, careful, and conscious on the way they convey their
message. This reflection procedure proved that safe practice online involves
not only the knowledge of the theory but also the understanding of the
sensitivity or being aware of the nuances of online communication.
Towards a Safe and Ethical Practise of Blogging
An ethical blogging practise should be secure and based on
definite ethical principles. Principlism, as the autonomy, beneficence,
non-maleficence, and justice help to offer a systematic perspective according
to which the decisions about blogging can be analysed (Kumah et al.,
2024). These principles can be used as a checklist by practitioners when they
construct online posts:
Autonomy: Do not disclose identifiable details
of service-users.
Beneficence: Make sure that the posts are educative,
encouraging to practitioners, or ought to enlighten the reader.
Non-maleficence: Good do no harm by not
spreading misleading information, offensive content, or professional
misconduct.
Justice: Be fair, eliminate the language of
discrimination and propose balanced points of view.
Ethical decision making is also facilitated by problem
solving tools. Five Whys tool, which has been applied in the past to unveil the
misinformation-related dilemmas, could also be utilised to identify the
underlying ethical hazard that is related to blogging (Mental Health UK, 2019).
As an illustration, when one is ethically insecure about a posting, the
repetitiveness of the word why will help identify possible risks to include
confidentiality issues, misunderstandings, or violations of professional boundaries.
Conclusion
Online blogging gives useful experience in reflection,
learning together, and involvement with the health and social care community.
Nevertheless, practitioners have to manoeuvre through. The major ethical
concerns are confidentiality, professional boundaries, and responsibility to
have correct, evidence-based communication. The dilemmas of safety entail
digital permanence, reputational risks, exposure to hostilities on the
internet, and the difficulties in dealing with misinformation. By engaging in
reflective practise, ethical considerations and cautious communication plans,
the practitioners could transform themselves into safe and responsible bloggers
