Reflections on Social Media & Professionalism
- Miranda Lamb
- May 24, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 23, 2019
Social media and online networking through forums like Moodle and Twitter are a recent addition to my professional persona. I only started to recognize the value of using Twitter as a resource and tool over the last year when I began attending and presenting at medical conferences as a part of my professional development and outreach as an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN). It has recently become a regular part of opening remarks for conferences to invite attendees to use a `Twitter #’ to engage in social media posting throughout the conference.
Initially, when I attended conferences where people were on their phones and `posting’ during the presentations, I thought this was rude, and people were disengaged. But, what I am coming to realize is that presenters want engagement, because engagement encourages deeper discussion, enhances dissemination and knowledge transfer, and allows people who cannot attend in person to have virtual attendance at events (Biomedical Central, 2017). In fact, I recently did a presentation with a Zoom video conference link, and realized that I really had no idea how large the audience was that I was speaking to. I came to appreciate the impact and reach when I received emails afterward from people all over that were not physically there but in virtual attendance. The popularization of social media really has changed the way we interact and communicate.
Throughout my career as an emergency and trauma nurse I have come to recognize and appreciate that it takes a team to provide our trauma patients the high quality and advanced care they need. Further, that many of the quality improvement (QI) projects I have been a part of, that have had any measure of success and sustainability- came through the interaction, and engagement of the interprofessional team. The most effective teams share responsibilities and promote role interdependence while respecting individual members’ experience and autonomy (Victoria State Government. (n.d.). In fact, research recommends interaction between disciplines in QI and as a regular part of team building and communication practices. It further suggests that this practice leads to better patient outcomes and higher quality of care (Cain & Chretien2013). However, to enhance the depth and value of interprofessional engagement and communication we need to also look at the ways in which each of the professions interact with each other, and then how they communicate outside of their professional groups. We need to settle on a medium that allows the flow of communication and knowledge transfer between the groups (Nancarrow, Booth, Ariss, Smith, Enderby & Roots 2013). Social media in the form of online discussions, and applications like Twitter can and are used as tools to achieve this. We can see this in action through our online interprofessional course discussions using Moodle.
I have used Twitter as a tool for networking in and outside of nursing, as a resource curation tool, and method of outreach. I use the tool to promote my work, that of my collogues and remain up to date on current work and research being done in trauma, recent changes and proposed changes in the delivery of health care in Ontario, and to remain connected with collogues who work in trauma in places that are geographically distant to my own. It has been a personal decision of mine to use social media applications to include Twitter and my Wix E-Profile page in adherence to my values, maintaining my: integrity, professionalism, patient focus, compassionate care, and ensuring that my practice is current with relation to best practice, education and training- with the ultimate goal -getting patients back to meaningful lives following traumatic events. For this reason all of my posts to these forums are constructed in a way that my values and professional standards are upheld and I maintain my accountability to my professional associations and regulating bodies.
References
Biomedical Central (2017). Using social media in medicine to your advantage, with care!
media-in-medicine-to-your-advantage-with-care/
Cain, J. & Chretien, K. (2013). Exploring Social Media’s Potential in Interprofessional
Education. Journal of Research in Interprofessional Practice and Education, 3, 2.
Retrieved from
Nancarrow, S. A., Booth, A., Ariss, S., Smith, T., Enderby, P., & Roots, A. (2013). Ten
principles of good interdisciplinary team work. Human resources for health, 11, 19.
doi:10.1186/1478-4491-11-19
Victoria State Government. (n.d.). An Interdisciplinary Approach to Caring. Retrieved from
als-and-health-services%2Fpatient-care%2Folder-people%2Fresources%2Fimproving-
access%2Fia-interdisciplinary&formCheck=2a095061548dae3f7917b804921266d8
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