Communication as Argumentation: The Use of Scaffolding Tools by a Networked Nursing Community

Abstract

This article analyzes the use of argumentation scaffolding strategies and tools by a networked community of nurses. Participants came from hospitals, health centres, and heart care institutes in three Canadian provinces. Over a six-month period, the nurses set a discussion agenda to address problems affecting the cardiac-patient population, using argumentation scaffolding as one of their networking tools. Data collected from two networked conferences is compared using transcripts of online conversations, interviews, and questionnaires. The analysis, drawing upon a theoretical framework integrating the work of Piaget, Habermas, and Grize, indicates different uses of the scaffolding tool as the nurses moved from the brainstorming, reflexive stage of discussion to the production of a co-authored document, The Heart Health Toolkit.

Internet and Health Communication

“…Cardiac nurses from hospitals, health centers, and heart-care institutes in three Canadian provinces came together over a six-month period to discuss problems affecting the cardiac patient population. They moved through brainstorming and knowledge sharing in discussions and eventually to the production of a co-authored document, the Heart Health Kit (Campos, 2007). The toolkit was later produced as a resource to help community groups plan and deliver heart health workshops with the support of public health nurses.…”