Using social media for continuous professional development

Using Twitter™ to drive research impact: A discussion of strategies, opportunities and challenges

“…Recently the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) included information on M a n u s c r i p t 12 how healthcare staff and students should professionally use social media in recognition its use is growing within the health fields (Moorley and Watson, 2015). In 2010, there were an estimated 19,100 nurses using Twitter™ (Bauman, 2010), and recent statistics reveal that there are 6.6 million healthcare Twitter™ profiles (Symplur, 2014 as cited in Moorley and Chinn, 2014a). The Twitter™ account @WeNurses has over 14,000 followers and allows nursing staff to communicate nationally in 'Twitter™ chats', creating previously unobtainable contacts and arguably revealing insight into health care practice from ground level (Richardson, et al 2016).…”

“…The health field is continuously changing due to the development of new knowledge, research and policies; therefore Twitter™ can be vital for healthcare professionals, patients and the general public to share current practice with others, and to keep up-to-date on new changes, enabling new ways of obtaining current, credible and reliable healthcare related information (Moorley and Chinn, 2014a;Mesko, 2013). There are a number of high profile people who use Twitter™, for example leading government ministers, politicians, leaders of healthcare policy bodies and national / international leaders in nursing and healthcare.…”

Engaging Learners With Social Media

“…As previously described, hand surgeons indicated that participation in a LinkedIn group contributed to their professional development (Dong et al, 2015). In addition, Moorley and Chinn (2015) recommended use of social media for formal continuing education in the United Kingdom and provided an example of how nurses could document their learning based on participation in the #WeNurses Twitter blog. NPD practitioners are challenged to identify ways to formalize educational social media processes and determine if the potential exists for using social media to award contact hours in recognition of innovative continuing education activities.…”

Can the use of social media contribute towards Nursing and Midwifery Council revalidation?

“…These include blogs written by students and registrants, exploring their everyday experiences of healthcare work, which offer understanding and inspiration to others; Facebook groups that include professional organisations such as the Royal College of Nursing, high-profile journals and more general profession specific groups; YouTube videos; an increasing level of research with healthcare professionals and service users being conducted on the internet; and Twitter chats and a host of service user-led SoMe accounts. Moorley and Chinn3 suggest that there are 3800 health communities, with 6.6 million healthcare Twitter profiles in existence. The power of SoMe such as Twitter to influence healthcare is enormous, as demonstrated by the success of Kate Granger's #mynameis campaign.…”

“…The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC),4 as part of the revalidation process, expects registrants to produce a reflective written account discussing continuous professional development (CPD), and Moorley and Chinn3 suggest that this discussion could be based on the use of SoMe. Specifically, they cite the use of Twitter chats, which are becoming increasingly common and successful (Sinclair et al 's5 account of using Twitter with nursing students is a good example, as is #wenurses).…”