Professionalism and Boundaries in Use of Social Media

About this course

Social media is now part of everyday life for healthcare professionals. It is used to learn, share research, build professional networks, promote services, campaign, and stay in touch with friends and family. It is also one of the most common routes into a fitness to practise investigation. A single post, photograph, message or comment can breach confidentiality, cross a professional boundary, mislead the public or damage confidence in a profession, and once it is online it can be copied, shared and seen by thousands of people within minutes.

This course explains how the UK health and social care regulators expect professionals to behave online, and how familiar duties of confidentiality, boundaries, honesty and respect apply in digital spaces. It covers messaging apps and professional groups, searching for patients online, freedom of expression and public debate, advertising and influencing, prescription-only medicines, generative AI and deepfakes, responding to online reviews and abuse, and what to do when something goes wrong. You will finish by writing a personal social media policy that you can use in practice.

CPD Value and How to Record It:

This course is designed to provide approximately 3 hours of learning, including reading, the reflection points, the reflective account and the assessment. In the UK, CPD is generally recorded as the time actually spent learning, so you should record the time you genuinely spend, which may be more or less than the estimate.

How the course fits your revalidation or CPD requirements depends on your regulator. For example, the NMC asks nurses, midwives and nursing associates to record 35 hours of CPD over three years, of which at least 20 must be participatory; self-directed online learning such as this course usually counts as individual learning unless you complete it with others. The GMC expects doctors to reflect on CPD for appraisal and revalidation rather than setting a fixed number of hours. The HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC and GCC each set their own CPD requirements, so check the current rules that apply to you. Always keep your certificate together with your written reflection.

What you will learn

• Explain how UK regulators' standards apply to the online conduct of healthcare and social care professionals.
• Protect patient confidentiality and privacy when using social media, messaging apps and online groups.
• Maintain clear professional boundaries with patients, service users, colleagues and students online.
• Balance freedom of expression with professional duties, including when sharing opinions, health information or concerns.
• Advertise and promote services lawfully and honestly, including the rules on prescription-only medicines.
• Recognise emerging online risks and respond appropriately when things go wrong.

Who this course is for

Doctors, nurses, midwives, nursing associates, dentists and dental care professionals, pharmacists, optical professionals, allied health professionals, social workers, students and anyone registered with a UK health or social care regulator.

Social workers: this cross-profession course covers principles that apply across health and social care; most worked examples come from healthcare settings.

Course content

11 sections · 3 CPD hours · 15 MCQs

Course facts

CPD value

Approximately 3 hours of learning, including reflection and assessment

Format

Self-paced reading with realistic online scenarios, comparison tables, reflective prompts and a written reflective account

Standards covered

GMC Good medical practice (2024) and social media advice; NMC Code, social media guidance and freedom of expression guidance; HCPC guidance on social media (2024); GDC, GPhC and GOC guidance; Social Work England guidance on communicating online (2026); UK GDPR; advertising rules (CAP Code and Human Medicines Regulations 2012); Online Safety Act 2023

Assessment

15 scenario-based multiple-choice questions; pass mark 12 out of 15 (80%)

Questions about this course