‘Digital Professionalism is the competence or values expected of a professional when engaged in social and digital communication’ as defined by Digital Professionalism, 2018 a specialist social media company who have services for legal, financial and clinical sectors.  Ellaway, 2015 proposes that in medicine digital professionalism refers to digital media being  used in a positive way to enhance patient care, altruism, understanding and trustworthiness. Awareness of the relationships with digital media and mindful use making sure that it’s use is ethical, conscious and accountable.

It’s certainly a topic that won’t go away!  In 2010, Mayo Clinic created it’s Centre for Social Media to ‘promote effective and appropriate application of social media tools and strategies in clinical practice, education and research’ and they have a 12 word social media policy: Don’t Lie, Don’t Pry; Don’t Cheat, Can’t Delete; Don’t Steal, Don’t Reveal (Gagnon & Sabus, 2015).   It appears that there are multiple drivers for digital professionalism from the individual and their sense of professional values and self, the organisation and how they are represented by their employees and indeed how they represent themselves to the public and the general public’s expectation that professionals uphold the same values whether digital or not. 

I think that digital professionalism is indeed a legitimate need.  Being aware of what is posted/used online  and it’s accuracy/calibre of information when used professionally in a digital capacity is important. People trust professionals (or used to) so there is a responsibility there.