Appropriateness of accepting Facebook "friend requests" from patients, attendings, etc

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Small Cell Carcinoma

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Does anyone know what the general consensus is on the etiquette of accepting social media requests from people you meet at the hospital (aside from other students). Since I have begun my third year, I have received friend requests from a few patients, as well as an attending I was working with. It is acceptable to accept these requests? Considering that I tend to post/share a lot of politically charged things, I have been hesitant to do so, but do not want to come across as being rude to anyone. Any suggestions?

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Does anyone know what the general consensus is on the etiquette of accepting social media requests from people you meet at the hospital (aside from other students). Since I have begun my third year, I have received friend requests from a few patients, as well as an attending I was working with. It is acceptable to accept these requests? Considering that I tend to post/share a lot of politically charged things, I have been hesitant to do so, but do not want to come across as being rude to anyone. Any suggestions?

My rule has always been I will accept requests from co-workers (I.e., residents, attendings) but never patients. That being said my social media has nothing more inflammatory than an occasional picture of me holding a fish I caught, a football game group shot, or a pretty sunset. If you routinely post and share more controversial things I would either decline those friend requests or create a separate friends group (for Facebook) for hospital friends that limits what they can see.
 
I would say never send a request to any of the following but if they friend request you:

Patients - no
Residents/Fellows - yes
Attendings - maybe
 
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Friends with patients is definitely a no. Everything else is basically at your discretion.

As a person, I happen to almost never send friend requests because I'm not very active on social media. As a resident, it would seem fine/appropriate to me to send friend requests to other residents. I would definitely feel weird requesting an attending. Friend requesting a med student would be really case-dependent. If I got along with a med student, I can see it being appropriate to friend request them only after the rotation was over, I've submitted my evaluation of them and I'd think twice if it was a clerkship student who I might supervise during a sub-I later.

As far as accepting, requests from residents and fellows would probably always be accepted. Same for others in the hospital that I would consider around my level on the totem pole (social workers and nurses around my age, etc.) I would probably accept a request from a med student if I didn't hate them or think it would cause an issue. A request from an attending would probably feel weird (maybe this is just the formality of my program), and I may or may not accept it depending on who it was.

As a med student, I think it would look weird to send a request to anybody except maybe a resident after your rotation was over. Accepting is pretty much entirely your choice. I think almost anybody would understand if you didn't accept their friend request because most people understand that these power dynamics can make people feel awkward. Maybe a resident you worked closely with and who you got along really well with might find it odd if you didn't accept their request but even that seems unlikely. People have different boundaries and that's fine.
 
Friends with patients is definitely a no. Everything else is basically at your discretion.

As a person, I happen to almost never send friend requests because I'm not very active on social media. As a resident, it would seem fine/appropriate to me to send friend requests to other residents. I would definitely feel weird requesting an attending. Friend requesting a med student would be really case-dependent. If I got along with a med student, I can see it being appropriate to friend request them only after the rotation was over, I've submitted my evaluation of them and I'd think twice if it was a clerkship student who I might supervise during a sub-I later.

As far as accepting, requests from residents and fellows would probably always be accepted. Same for others in the hospital that I would consider around my level on the totem pole (social workers and nurses around my age, etc.) I would probably accept a request from a med student if I didn't hate them or think it would cause an issue. A request from an attending would probably feel weird (maybe this is just the formality of my program), and I may or may not accept it depending on who it was.

As a med student, I think it would look weird to send a request to anybody except maybe a resident after your rotation was over. Accepting is pretty much entirely your choice. I think almost anybody would understand if you didn't accept their friend request because most people understand that these power dynamics can make people feel awkward. Maybe a resident you worked closely with and who you got along really well with might find it odd if you didn't accept their request but even that seems unlikely. People have different boundaries and that's fine.

As an attending I try to never friend request med students or residents. Just seems awkward given the dynamic. On the other hand I have no problem accepting friend requests from them.
 
The only time patients should be accepted is to a professional social media forum— ie one with zero personal pictures or comments, just medicine related. Some academic physicians have YouTube pages where the demonstrate an operation or a Facebook page to advertise research activity and such.
 
Also if there’s any chance your posts are offensive or controversial, don’t accept friend requests of those who aren’t really your friends. Gossip spreads like wildfire in the hospital and becomes exaggerated. You don’t want to be known as the person who has one extreme view or another.
 
I've only requested/accepted residents whom I've had great interactions with after my rotation.

Definitely not patients and attendings, not so much either.
 
100% no to patients. Many hospitals/schools/GME offices have social media policies against this, and I’ve seen people get into trouble for friending people they met at the hospital.

The rest is at your discretion. I accept nurses when they friend request me, and actively requested my coresidents and costudents. Attendings I didn’t friend until after I graduated residency to avoid any weird dynamics. Now, I’m on a FB group for female physicians and have actually seen several of my attendings post/like on there even though I haven’t become friends with them. FB should become more private as you move through the ranks.
 
Definite no on patients (as everyone else above agrees). Everybody else is at your discretion.
 
Agree with others. If you routinely post politically charged content on your personal facebook, I'd recommend that you 1) consider stopping or 2) not add co-workers. All it takes is one person getting offended nowadays.
 
It would be awkward rejecting a request from your attending. It's probably not a good idea to accept requests from patients. Also, if you're Facebook stalking a patient's profile, which I guess a lot of people do, make sure not to accidentally hit "like" on their posts or anything like that.
 
It would be awkward rejecting a request from your attending. It's probably not a good idea to accept requests from patients. Also, if you're Facebook stalking a patient's profile, which I guess a lot of people do, make sure not to accidentally hit "like" on their posts or anything like that.

Huh? Really?

I have wayyyyyyyyy too much **** to do in any given day to give any ****s about a patient's facebook profile
 
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