Social Media Can Be Your Friend or Your Foe
Travel nurses are often sociable by nature. That may be a big reason why you were drawn to the world of travel nursing; to travel across America and experience the varying cultures, meeting new people, and expanding your professional network.
Though you love your travel nursing career, the huge demand and increased expectations of healthcare professionals often leaves you stressed. You finish your shift, and you just want to be you.
Venting on social media or even dropping your professional persona in your free time is easily done. But what does your social media say about you? According to CareerBuilder, 70% of employers are snooping on your online platforms to help decide if you’re a good fit. Do you feel uncomfortable about this? You shouldn’t.
In this article, you’ll learn how to drain your social media from negativity, leaving only evidence of professionalism and employability.
Detox Your Posts
There is much less leniency for healthcare professionals to post inappropriately. In fact, there is none with regards to breach of a patient’s personal information. Posting anything that detriments an individual’s confidentiality will of course result in much more than being struck off a recruiter’s candidate list.
Have a good look through your posts. Do they make you feel proud or uncomfortable from a professional perspective? If it’s the latter, you’re doing yourself a disservice. It’s simply not worth having online.
Red flags for recruiters include:
- Provocative or inappropriate photos or content
- Evidence of alcohol or drug use
- Negative posts regarding previous or current employers and colleagues
- Poor communication skills
- Discriminatory comments
- Mismatching qualification details
- Connections to criminal behavior
- Unprofessional screen/profile name
This doesn’t only apply to your own profile. Posting or commenting such content elsewhere is detectable.
How to Appropriately Express Yourself
Travel nursing can be very emotionally draining. And one thing we’ve learnt recently is this mustn’t be bottled up. It’s crucial for travel nurses to be able to offload the pressure and emotions that come with the profession.
However, be cautious about how you express yourself online. Because once it’s out there, there’s no going back. So, before you post or comment on anything, make sure you:
- Pause before you post – give it a good hour. Only post with a clear mind, and never in the heat (or exhaustion) of the moment.
- Remain vague – never create connections back to individuals (especially patients or professionals) or a facility.
- Remain professional – you know the importance of your role. Never express strong opinions or even mildly careless comments that may be considered inappropriate.
As a professional travel nurse, you are a trusted member of society. Don’t abuse that trust by offloading detailed feelings and emotions online.
There are people you can share experiences with and apps to help you cope:
- Talkspace app – with a special offer for nurses
- Headspace app – for meditation and relieving stress
- The Compassion Caravan – Healing Nurses Through Compassion and Self-Care
- Frontline Nurses WikiWisdom
A Word about Privacy Settings
Of course, there are settings you can check and set to prevent as much snooping as you can. You may want to Google your name and see the results from an employer’s perspective, to help you weed out anything that may portray you negatively.
However, this isn’t necessarily the answer. The best thing you can do is have an online presence that showcases your professionalism to recruiters and helps you stand out from your competition.
How Social Media Should Be Used
Don’t go rushing off to delete your account. This looks suspicious to employers, but also gives your competition an advantage if they have an impressive online presence.
In addition, social media can be hugely beneficial to travel nurses, to:
- Stay up to date with research and industry standards
- Easily connect with healthcare experts
- Build connections
- Follow safety/drug alerts, and nursing trends
- Be notified on the latest specialty conferences
Summing Up
Social media platforms make it all too easy for us all to slip up. If you’re a travel nurse looking for the best travel nursing jobs, it’s time to assess your profiles and accounts before the recruiters do.
There’s a whole host of reasons social media can be good for your professional life. You can keep updated in real time, reach out to experts and support groups, and become better educated than ever before. If used correctly, it can even increase your opportunities in recruitment for travel nurse vacancies.
So, get filtering, then contact Loyal Source so that we can put a confident you in line for the best travel nurse jobs today.