How Much Should I Share?

May 15, 2010, 3:56 pmDoctor Psychobabble3 comments

The Lake + goose

Now that I have crossed over from being a lowly medical student to being a lowly resident and doctor, there are many things that have been on my mind. Since the inception of this blog, one of the biggies has been how much information to share with the world. On my previous blog, I shared quite a lot of personal information, and even more on the blog before that. I’ve quite intentionally put a little bit less identifying information on this blog so far.

However, I am still currently sharing quite a bit of information with the world. I have published: my first and last name; the location where I live and will soon be working; photos of myself; and of course, photos of my doggies.

Soon, I will be back in the hospital, and I will have actual, real, 100 % alive, patients of my own. I still have the desire to share (100% HIPAA friendly) patient stories, and stories about my own life.

Fishin at the Lake

However, I have read horror stories about bloggers being fired from their place of work because of sharing too much information online. I am also acutely aware of the fact that my patients may be able to find me on the “Internets.” If you were my psychiatric patient, would you want to read all about my personal happenings online? Exactly. I’m not sure that everyone would. Or should.

But I have always been a bit of an exhibitionist, I guess. Really, anyone who has a blog could be accused of that. I enjoy sharing all of my adventures with the world. I enjoy sharing my thoughts and personal anecdotes with complete strangers.

So, I am caught in this strange “virtual limbo.” I want to share everything with the world, but at the same time, I have a (professional?) need to remain anonymous, and keep myself somewhat hidden in the shadows. Such is my current state of cognitive dissonance. We shall have to wait and see how I manage to balance these two opposing forces.

The Lake + goose

In writing this post, I was reminded of my partner’s Thesis Project. It basically touches upon this idea of trying to balance two, opposing needs: the desire to participate in and share with the world and the desire to remain private. I encourage you to check out his work (it’s still currently on his development website). I actually helped him quite a bit in the creation of this project!

Photos: Taken today at Prospect Park. My little slice of heaven.

  • Ksenia

    Well, one thing you could do is take out where you are doing your residency and your place of residence and replace it with “east coast.” That way, at least no one would know (unless they know you personally) where your stories are coming from. Supposedly you could “unlink” (if there is such a thing) this blog and your other one without having to erase everything off your other one. Posting pictures of your residence and neighborhood doesn’t have to mean that EVERYONE will be able to tell where you live. Unless of course you put your street address sign. On a personal note, I love your blog and most importantly I have great respect for who you are and what you’ve done and I would hate to see your career damaged. There are plenty of crazy, menacing people out there, who don’t necessarily mean harm, but need to unleash their feelings and what other better way than to do it online. In our hospital, no resident/med student/nurse is even allowed to post the room number of a patient (when making a reference to them) because many people put their location of work as part of their “info” tab. So supposedly, *anyone* could look what unit you work on and trace it to the room. Not that anyone would do that but since it’s *possible* the mysterious “they” don’t want you to do it. Maybe once you start your program, you would get a good feel for what you want to write and then decide if it’s something appropriate or not…
    Our hospital did have a few people get fired over Facebook. But somehow FB is still accessible through our work computers! (makes me wonder if the hospital administration are dependent on them, too! and addicted! hehehehe). We even had one attending get talked to by his medical director because he posted a picture of a patient (and actually got parental permission) for a fundraiser on his FB profile. Needless to say, he deleted his whole profile. And that was for a good cause.
    I don’t know what you tell you other than I hope you continue to blog because I love reading your stores, seeing your pictures and “keeping up” with what I’m doing, even though I’m a total stranger. :)

  • Your loving son,

    Ask.

    The concept of privacy is confusing. But we all have our own ideas of when the line between public and private has been crossed. In some cases people give consent without really realizing what they are approving. But in the case of blogging, it’s pretty straight forward.

    Ask your employer about their standards and guidelines.

    Ask your patients permission to use specific information. In some cases the answer will be “No.” As your primary profession is in the realm of psychiatry, you should respect the wishes of the people whose stories you will tell. If your primary profession were journalism, things would obviously be different.

  • linda

    Your safety would be a primary reason not to share identifying information. You are going to be working with some living in dark, delusional worlds. Worlds that sometimes don’t have much grounding in reality. For that reason you must protect yourself. I would venture to guess that they may hold the potential to lash out. Be cautious.