{"id":1875,"date":"2021-01-01T19:31:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T00:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-coto.pantheonsite.io\/?post_type=resource&#038;p=1875"},"modified":"2025-01-16T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T21:23:08","slug":"accountability-online-and-in-the-media","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/resources\/accountability-online-and-in-the-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountability Online and in the Media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Q:<\/strong>&nbsp;<em>Can I be held accountable for posting or voicing controversial personal opinions in the media or online?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A:<\/strong>&nbsp;Yes.&nbsp; As noted in the media of recent, two nurses are being investigated by the College of Nurses of Ontario for public comments they made about anti-masking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As regulated health care professionals, occupational therapists are expected to interact online and publicly in keeping with the:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/code-of-ethics-2020.pdf\" data-type=\"attachment\" data-id=\"1771\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Code of Ethics<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/docs\/default-source\/pdfs\/code-of-ethics-2020.pdf?sfvrsn=ec605359_16\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/resources\/competencies-for-occupational-therapists-in-canada\/\" data-type=\"resource\" data-id=\"1279\">Essential Competencies of Practice for Occupational Therapists in Canada<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/resources\/standard-for-professional-boundaries-and-the-prevention-of-sexual-abuse-2023\/\" data-type=\"resource\" data-id=\"1284\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Standards for Professional Boundaries<\/a>.<br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The public holds occupational therapists in a position of trust and publicly voicing controversial personal opinions contradicting public health guidance, such as the importance of masking and vaccination, could be considered misconduct.&nbsp; The pandemic crisis requires occupational therapists to align with public health directives and to remain professional both at work and in all public forums.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reference<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/COTO-use-of-social-media.pdf\" data-type=\"attachment\" data-id=\"3687\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Use of Social Media<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember, our Practice team is here to help. Contact the Practice Resource Service at 416.214.1177 ext. 240 or email&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:practice@coto.org\">practice@coto.org<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q:&nbsp;Can I be held accountable for posting or voicing controversial personal opinions in the media or online? A:&nbsp;Yes.&nbsp; As noted in the media of recent, two nurses are being investigated by the College of Nurses of Ontario for public comments they made about anti-masking. As regulated health care professionals, occupational therapists are expected to interact [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"resource-audience":[16,17],"resource-topic":[35],"resource-type":[12],"class_list":["post-1875","resource","type-resource","status-publish","hentry","resource-audience-public","resource-audience-registrants","resource-topic-working-as-an-ot","resource-type-q-and-a"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/1875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/resource"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/1875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4474,"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/1875\/revisions\/4474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"resource-audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-audience?post=1875"},{"taxonomy":"resource-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-topic?post=1875"},{"taxonomy":"resource-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coto.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-type?post=1875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}