‘FACEBOOKS’ DEFINING FRIENDSHIP DOWN ?

With the emergence of the mega-social networking site Facebook, it seems everyone's "friends" with everyone else these days

• According to New England Journal of Medicine, when introducing a real friend to a new acquaintance, we often feel the need to call my friend "a dear friend" or a "close friend." "Friend" requires an adjective these days, since otherwise it feels empty. We've dumbed adult friendships down.
• When we dumb friendship down, on Facebook or in everyday life, we risk confusing people who may misconstrue what is signified by that relationship. This, in my view, is the best reason not to friend your patient or your client.
• When in a trust relationship (what lawyers fancily call a "fiduciary duty"), your client or your patient may be vulnerable. He or she may consider a curt note from you on Facebook to be threatening. "What have I done to offend him?" they might be thinking. "Will he delay my appointment? Treat me rudely? Refuse to refill my prescription?"
• All patients, all clients, are not the same. A mother , a physician, suggests that "a good rule to follow is for the doctor always to be 'abstinent', in other words, she should not be 'getting something' out of her relationship with her patient other than the satisfaction of doing as good a job as possible. Patients should not be sources of entertainment, information, news, stock market tips, romance, actual friendship or warm feelings."
• According to Dr. Sachin, his view is that professional codes for self-regulated professions forbidding romance with patients (or clients) aim to protect the most vulnerable among us. And vulnerability in affairs of the heart is not always self-evident.
• Hulking football linemen. He knew at least two in university can cry over a woman who politely denies them a date. "Let's be friends" can be the cruelest of lines.
• THE RULES DON'T CHANGE
• The same rules of friendship should apply online and off. A friendship is not the same as a series of client meetings in a downtown office.
• The spirit, if not the letter, of most professional ethical codes would suggest that "friending" a patient or client on Facebook is inappropriate. I consider it inappropriate since it can invite miscommunication, disappointment and expectations of favouritism.
• One never knows whether one of your patients or clients might harbour resentment or disappointment or fear or vulnerability if the online friendship crumbles. This may happen innocently: It takes time, which few professionals have much of, to stay on top of email and social networking correspondence. And to your client or patient, that fragile online friendship may mean much more than it does to you.

Source: Neil Seeman who is a writer, and director and primary investigator of the Health Strategy Innovation Cell at Massey College at the University of Toronto. Originally published by Longwoods Publishing ( Longwoods.com)