There is much discussion around the use of technology and social media within Higher Education and how it can be utilised to encourage student engagement and improve the student learning experience. Many Healthcare Professionals now undertake their training within universities which then creates a further debate around how Healthcare Professionals utilise social media and remain professional. Such issues have been of concern to both student and professional bodies resulting in many shying away from using social media and potentially missing out of valuable learning resources.
The debate and discussion of such issues will undoubtedly rumble on for many years to come as the range of Social Media platforms or interfaces continues to develop and evolve. Professional bodies such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council, (NMC) offer guidance and advice about how to use social media responsibly, click the link to view the guidance
https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/social-media-guidance.pdf
There are many platforms openly and freely available, such as…
* Twitter
* Facebook
* Pinterest
* Instagram
* Snapchat
…… to mention just a few of those currently available and each has its own merits in terms of use as a learning tool. Key speaker Eric Stoller, at Staffordshire University’s Teaching and Learning Conference #staffsLT17 discussed this very issue; stating that there are many social media platforms available and all have potential to be used within Higher education as learning tools and resources.
Choosing a platform can be difficult but as a tool for receiving the latest information without having to look for it, Twitter is a great choice. Twitter is an interesting Social Media platform and one which brings the latest information, publications and resources to your handheld device at the moment of publication, while also allowing interaction between followers to discuss and debate topics. The Royal College of Nursing offers advice on how social media, in particular Twitter, can be utilised to help nurses going through or preparing for revalidation with the NMC, click the link to view the document
To those new to Twitter and tweeting it is a different concept to some of the other social media platforms currently available, but once you are up and running the latest information is available at your finger tips. The most important thing is to take the brave step to actually create an account with Twitter and explore, We Nurses (#wenurses) offer useful tips for those just starting out on Twitter…
How to begin
Each social media platform has its own language, although they are now working together so that the same symbols can be used to link various posts or Tweets to other social media platforms, the symbols @ and # have been ‘rebranded’ by social media. Again @wenurses have put together a guide to help understand the various symbols
As Healthcare Professionals the usefulness of Twitter as a learning tool and information provider will depend very much upon the choices you make about who to follow. As a starting point, I would suggest the following Twitter accounts –
- The NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council)
- The Department of Health
- The Kings fund
- The NHS,
- NICE
- Professional journals, such as British Journal of Nursing, Journal of Advanced nursing
- CQC Care Quality Commission
- Public Health England
- We Nurses, Nurchat
The list is endless but it is also very personal depending upon your field of interest, as each of the twitter accounts you follow tweet (make an announcement or post information) it will appear directly in your Twitter news feed, latest news, articles, research findings or even the latest BBQ recipe.
Be brave, have a go, sign up
Jayne Evans, Lecturer, J.L.Evans@staffs.ac.uk