can nurses use social media to share information and keep updated ?

21-Jun-2011 12:53 pm

This is really interesting Teresa; I spend hours of my time trying to find the information I need online. Search engines seem to send me to sites that are obviously geared towards making me buy stuff, rather than finding research material, or information that will help me in either my PREP work or my day-to-day role.

You are right that we all use social media, but I hadn’t thought about using it for anything other than my social life.

If, having trawled through the internet I find something that I think would add value to our “nursing community” I would be happy to share it, to save the next person trawling through as I did.

I am not sure how I would achieve this in practice, but the concept is great I think.

Does anybody know of where I could see this in practice or learn how to do it?

23-Jun-2011 3:47 pm

You blog (http://agencynurseuk.blogspot.com) has really got me thinking Teresa, I don’t know if nurses will get this, the fact that we can achieve this ourselves?

I noticed that BBC now have hashtags on their programs promotional information, and often during the programs too, One Show, Apprentice etc. But they don’t even mention twitter (I presume that is what it is aimed at).

I think the information providers need to drive this for us in our niche nursing community.

I wonder if the NT will start using different hashtags across their media to help us go “beyond the original content” for example #NURSEUK #Asthma , even if the origional content is on a poster, in the magazine or aywhere really.

I now understand your “campaign for #NURSEUK”, it is not only for us to use it to search, but for content providers and referrers to use it too.

I think this is conceptually great and I would have to say I am fully behind it.

24-Jun-2011 4:43 pm

Is this something that is new to nursing, or is this type of sharing and highlighting, or tagging, information just new to professional development and online community building?

I think that it is a good idea, if we can demonstrate where it has added value to other industries or professions then that will help us to educate our own?

If it is new then I think that creating this would be difficult, but I too think it is a great idea, we all use different ways to stay in touch with friends, colleagues and latest best practices/technique; so what a great way to use social media to bind relevant content via #nurseuk .

I will watch this space.

Well done, and good luck Teresa, us nurses are a bright lot :)