Social media: friend or foe?

While we all agree that social media can bring many benefits to vets, vet nurses and veterinary practices as a whole, it can also be the demise of some RCVS-registered vets and vet nurses (together “vet professionals”) who fall foul of the RCVS’s Code of Professional Conduct (“Code”).

Accountability on social media

Disciplinary action

Most notably, in March 2024 the RCVS’s Disciplinary Committee publicly directed that a vet nurse be removed from the register for posting offensive remarks on Twitter, now X, and for holding themselves out as a vet on social media.

In making such a decision, the Disciplinary Committee opined that it was extremely serious “for a registered veterinary nurse to pretend to be a veterinary surgeon on a public platform”and the “highly offensive language of the tweets in this case, extending over a period of years… [amounted to conduct which is] fundamentally incompatible with continued registration”.

In reaching their decision, the Disciplinary Committee confirmed that “removal from the register [was] the only sanction which [was] sufficient to satisfy the public interest in maintaining the proper standards of behaviour for registered veterinary practitioners and public confidence in the profession and its regulation”.

The RCVS takes social media concerns seriously and will not hesitate to impose a sanction where required

As can be deduced from the Disciplinary Committee’s decision, the RCVS takes social media concerns seriously and will not hesitate to impose a sanction where required. As in the case above, the most serious sanction available to them – removal from the register – was deemed appropriate. Vet professionals should therefore take care when using social media as it can be a difficult landscape to navigate.

While the RCVS has helpfully produced social media guidance to be read in conjunction with the Code, vet professionals should remember that they will be held accountable to this guidance should a social media-related concern be raised against them. Ignorance of this guidance will not be accepted by the RCVS. Therefore, vet professionals should fully acquaint themselves with this guidance if they have not already done so.

       

RCVS guidance

In brief, the RCVS guidance states:

1. Social media includes “all technology that can be used to create or share content, including but not limited to opinions and insights, information, knowledge, and ideas and interests”. This includes X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Tumblr, Vetsurgeon.org, Vetnurse.co.uk and WhatsApp, as means of example
2. Vet professionals have a responsibility to behave professionally and responsibly online and essentially act as they would in the real world
3. Vet professionals should avoid making, posting or facilitating content that:
   • Contravenes any internet or their employer/organisation’s social media policy
   • May cause distress or provoke anti-social or violent behaviour
   • Is offensive, false or unjustified
   • Instigates or participates in abuse, bullying, victimisation, harassment or threatening or intimidating behaviour
   • Is discriminatory
4. Brings the veterinary profession into disrepute
5. Vet professionals should consider how to protect their own privacy owing to the public nature of online activity. Of note, location information may be embedded within photographs taken and uploaded to social media and any uploaded content can be forwarded or shared to others on social media. As the RCVS correctly asserts, “anything shared online will be there permanently ”and vet professionals may wish to check and amend their privacy settings accordingly
6. Vet professionals have a legal and professional duty to maintain client confidentiality at all times and client information, or information about a client’s animal(s), cannot be disclosed to a third party unless the client consents (or there are animal welfare concerns). This includes online publication. Vet professionals should therefore be careful not to identify nor publish photographs or a livestream of a client or a client’s animal(s) online unless explicit consent has been provided by the client (and recorded)
7. Where a vet professional wishes to discuss a case in a vet professionals-only online forum, relevant steps should be taken to anonymise the client and/or a client’s animal to prevent them from being identified
8. Where a client makes a negative complaint online about a vet professional or veterinary practice, the client should be invited to contact the practice to discuss their concerns further and an online public dispute should be avoided

Final thoughts

While most of the above is essentially pragmatic in nature, the inclusion of WhatsApp messages may surprise some vet professionals. However, in 2022, offensive WhatsApp messages, made within a closed group, formed the basis of Fitness to Practise proceedings brought against a healthcare practitioner by their regulator. Therefore, care must and should be taken when using all forms of social media.  

While most of the above is essentially pragmatic in nature, the inclusion of WhatsApp messages may surprise some vet professionals