Professionalism and Social Media Audit
Once I completed the social media audit, it confirmed what I already knew: my online presence is quite weak, because a Google search of my name does not yield much other than my LinkedIn profile and that’s intentional. I shed Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter years ago when I realized I was investing too much time into social media with minimal professional return; therefore, I prefer to contact my colleagues directly via email, phone, or in person.
As a Medical Laboratory Technologist (MLT), my contributions to patient care are often “behind the scenes” requiring precise and timely diagnostic testing. My limited online presence is in line with my profession, because I do not need to be online to prove my worth, and I do use sites such as LinkedIn to keep current with healthcare organizations and laboratories, but rarely post. Research has shown that healthcare professionals must also balance their online presence with accuracy due to the rapid spread of misinformation in digital spaces (Sheng et al., 2023).
My Professionalism Audit has reminded me of the accountability that I am responsible for as a healthcare professional, and as a regulated health professional, I am accountable to the College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario (CMLTO) and nationally to the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science (CSMLS). Both organizations require ethical conduct, continuous professional development, and protection of the public trust (CMLTO, 2024; CSMLS, 2023), and therefore, professionalism does not stop at the lab bench, it extends to how I portray myself online.
I turned off a lot of the older accounts when I realized I was spending more time browsing through the old feeds than I was reading, learning or contributing, and I now only use YouTube sparingly for personal enrichment, such as music, crafts, and educational content, and LinkedIn to keep up to date with my industry. I think this ties in quite well with the discussion in Wolff and Mulholland (2013) on curation as a way of managing and interpreting information in a purposeful and meaningful way rather than simply accumulating it.
Lessons Learned
One of the biggest things I have learned from my Professionalism and Social Media Audits is that being intentional matters, because I used to worry that backing off of social media would “hurt me” professionally, but I have learned the opposite. For me, a small and purposeful presence is better than a broad one, and I am using LinkedIn for professional updates and YouTube for personal learning, which is a strategy that allows me to focus on quality over quantity.
Another important takeaway is how closely professionalism and digital identity overlap. The same standards I follow in the lab; accuracy, accountability, and respect, apply to how I present myself online. Even though I do not post often, I know that what I do share reflects on me as a regulated health professional. This reminded me that professionalism does not stop at the workplace door; it extends into the digital spaces where patients, colleagues, and organizations also interact.
Balance is key and if you use it too little, you will miss opportunities at work. If you use it too much, you will waste time or get exposed to fake news, because staying informed, connected, and ethical while not being addicted to social media has been working well for me at this point in my career, thus allowing me to find a good balance.
My audits helped me clarify the kind of professional identity I want to cultivate. Three values stand out: reliability, integrity, and mentorship. Reliability reflects the expectation that every lab result I produce is accurate and timely. Integrity means upholding professional standards in every aspect of my work and representation. Mentorship comes from my teaching experiences, where I found joy in passing on knowledge to the next generation of laboratory professionals.
Although I may not be the poster child for Ontario healthcare, I am a key player in the system because, by maintaining a “behind the scenes” presence online, being mindful of what I share, and following CMLTO standards, I am creating a professional identity that is both trustworthy and forward thinking. The Social Media and Professionalism Audits have shown me that professionalism is not just about how I behave at the bench, but about how I project myself to the world outside of the lab, therefore, I am able to project a professional image.
References
Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science. (2023). About CSMLS.
College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario. (2024). About CMLTO. https://www.cmlto.com
Sheng, A. Y., Gottlieb, M., Bautista, J. R., Trueger, N. S., Westafer, L. M., & Gisondi, M. A. (2023). The role of emergency physicians in the fight against health misinformation: Implications for resident training. AEM Education and Training, 7(S1), S48–S57. https://doi.org/10.1002/aet2.10877
Wolff, A., & Mulholland, P. (2013). Curation, curation, curation. In Proceedings of the 3rd Narrative and Hypertext Workshop (pp. 1–4). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/2462216.2462217Enter info here