It is one of the most disturbing developments I have seen in the medical blogosphere in quite some time. GeekNurse is gone! GeekNurse was a blog about the experiences of a pediatrics RN in Auckland, New Zealand. It was also one of my favorite medical blogs, though I was a latecomer. I often enjoy reading nurses' blogs, because they offer a perspective on the medical life that is different from the physician.
GeekNurse closed down with a very cryptic and Orwellian message:
Closed
Owing to concerns raised by staff and management, GN's archive has been removed from public display.
What confounds me the most is the very bureaucratic and political nature of the statement. It is written in the passive voice ("concerns raised by staff and management" and "archive has been removed"), a stylistic ploy authoritarians use to hide the identity of the perpetrator (as in the classic Washington standby, "mistakes have been made"). The phrase "staff and management" also has that Iron Curtain-ish feel to it. GeekNurse is a lively and often humorous writer, and I have a hard time believing he could have authored that statement, at least not without a gun to his head.
The commenters on the site seem to feel "staff and management" refers to the administrators at the hospital where he works. Though GeekNurse is a pseudonym, he apparently identified himself by name in the copyright statement of his blog, so he would have been an easy target for witch hunters. Having worked in many hospitals myself, I can see how a hospital administration might apply pressure to one of its employees to prevent him from embarrassing them, or (more legitimately) from compromising patient confidentiality.
It is worth noting that if the closing of GeekNurse was the act of a hospital administration and if it was done over the concern for patient confidentiality, this does not excuse an act of censorship. Often, especially in academic or public-minded institutions, there is the belief that censorship is acceptable if the intent is benign. Unfortunately, this attitude overlooks the value of the discordant voice in any society. In my mind, there is no distinction between benificent censorship and forced homogeneity.
GeekNurse was never offensive that I know of. And erasing an entire blog is a radical response to a conflict of interest. If there was a problem, why couldn't GN remove the few entries in question and then issue a public statement explaining what was done?
I worry about this because I too am a hospital employee, having signed on with Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in McComb, Mississippi. Though Southwest has never said a word to me about my website (in truth, I do not know if they know it exists), I occasionally worry that one day I will be approached about the content of my blog. Since I am a doctor, my employment options are many, so I doubt I would take any kind of censorship lying down. Of course, one never knows until the time comes.
What I would like from GeekNurse is an explanation. I would even more dearly like to hear from "staff and management." Freedom of speech is a very precious right, and we bloggers should not let something like this pass without comment.