Ask before taking photos or videos of nurses, union head requests

By Meghan Groff

Nova Scotia's nurses probably don't want to be in your Tik Tok video or appear in your Instagram feed. 

That's according to the head of the union that represents them.

The president of the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union says people are taking photos and recording nurses while they're trying to do their jobs, and it's starting to become a problem.

“Nurses have called us to see if there's anything, as a union, we can do to protect their rights in their workplace when it comes to recording them doing their jobs,” Janet Hazelton said.

Hazelton said some videos and photos could be taken out of context, or even a complete misunderstanding of a situation.

“We've seen videos where people have thought they were videotaping a nurse sitting at a desk doing nothing while their son or daughter is waiting in the emergency department, when in fact it isn't even a nurse, it's a board clerk whose job it is to file,” she explained.

She told NEWS 95.7 fill-in host Jordi Morgan it also becomes a privacy issue for other patients.

“Often there's more than one patient in the room and the other patient could be captured. That's not okay,” she stated.

Hazelton said most nurses would have no problem being in a photo after helping to deliver a baby, or being recorded while giving out complicated medical advice so it can be listened to later, just ask first.

She'd like the health authority to put up signs suggesting people ask permission before taking photos or videos in a hospital.

“Most people are rule followers,” Hazelton said. “We're just asking that people respect that we're doing our job.”

“We don't want to see ourselves on someone's social media platform without our permission.”

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today