Social Media And Nursing

Editor's Notes

• #4: Media originated in the field of advertising over 70 years ago (Merriam-Websters). Prior to advertising communication was accomplished using hieroglyphics in Egyptian times, and continuously progressed over time. Radio, magazines, newspapers and television were all forms of one-way communication and involved little to no personal interaction. With the evolution of media to include social aspects, two-way communication has evolved.
• #6: Social media is a global phenomenon that has given voice to many who would not have ever been heard. According to Doyle (n.d), social media is the media that involves online technology that allows people to share information to include communication through video, words, and pictures. Traditional media may foster a connection to information; however social media is the new media used that contains a social component and it fosters two way communications (www.mashable.com, n.d). It allows for communication through social networking sites.
• #7: The way people have communicated and socialized has evolved over time. Face to face communication has been the preferred method; however as people migrated to places far away from their families and loved one’s the postal service facilitated communication. The telephone opened new opportunities for communication for those who could afford it, followed by the radio and television. With the invention of computers and the internet, the social aspect of media increased and advanced over the years to what we currently use today.
• #8: Social Media started with the phone through the use of phone phreaking. This allowed for free calls through company test lines for the hosting of discussions or seminars. Hacked business voicemail systems functioned as the first blogs and podcasts. The first bulletin board systems held social discussions (Borders). Also according to Borders(2009), “Online services like “Prodigy” and “Compuserve” were the first large scale corporate attempts to bring interactive, “social” online experiences to the masses. The internet went from exclusive access to being accessible by most people.
• #9: Cavazza (2008) broke down social media into ten categories in his publication to include, “publication tools, sharing tools, social networks, micro publication tools, social aggregation tools, live cast, virtual worlds, social gaming and massively multiplayer online gaming.” These social networks are where sharing of ideas and interest occurs through sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. These sites are also used by higher education for marketing.The first social networking site, sixdegrees.com, was started in 1997. This site spearheaded many other sitesFacebook started in 2004 originally for Harvard students, and consequently expanded to other universities. Many universities create an official Fan page that contains posts regarding school information. The Fan page also contains video, discussion boards and photos. Fan pages serve as a great marketing tool to many universities.YouTube allows users to upload video and share it through the Internet across the world. Universities have been making YouTube video’s for over twenty years to recruit and drive business to their websites without adding cost to the budget.Twitter allows users to send short messages that act like instant messages but include the information that would contained in a blog. The information could be in the form of a question or comment. Universities usually use Twitter for marketing purposes as well.
• #11: Social Media offers an innovative way to share ideas and experiences. It fosters a connection based of familiarity or interest. Social Media can increase marketing potential; it also allows for creativity and expression.
• #12: Information overload can occur, which results in difficulty of persons to keep up with emails and print publications. One can become distracted by the various social media tools and fail to multi-task with traditional methods. Information maybe difficult to filter through also, and it maybe hard to find the best quality content because of the bias that may exist due to sponsor supported information. Social media can also give a voice to negativity orhateful information.
• #13: Schmitt(2000) believes nurses are the largest group of healthcare educators and professional. And, learning new technology should be an important part of nurse training. Social media gives a voice to nurses and nursing students to discuss things openly and humanize their stories (Solis 2008).In other educational settings, according to Vadium (2009), universities are using social media to collect and share information, display the work of students and faculty, advertise events, spread or correspond during emergencies and connect to the community.
• #14: The current mission at The Center for Allied Health is “to bridge the labor gap occurring in demand occupations and to train competent professionals who are well prepared to enter the job market. ” The current methods to contact The Center is through it’s web site form, calling, or in person. The schools website are without social media advertisements and there are no management approved uses of social media in school. Personal use of social media includes 90% faculty and 36 out of 45 students enrolled in the first RN class are using social media; particularly Facebook.
• #17: The audience is the intended group you desire to reach to achieve your goal. The actual audience is without boundaries, however, the targeted audience would be enrolled students, former students, staff members, and clinical sites.
• #18: The objective would include creating brand awareness within the vocational school market. Through creating brand awareness there is anticipation of an increase in admissions to The Center for Allied Health. When admission goals are achieved, social media would then be used to facilitate learning in the students enrolled.
• #19: It is necessary that management understand the importance of social media and to approve the process of implementing social media into the mission and goals of the school. Once approved, a policy for social media would have to be established and then implemented.
• #20: Tactics links your goals, audience, and strategy with the special tools needed to achieve the goals. The intended use for social media at The Center for Allied Health would determine the social media tools required to meet the objective.
• #21: The goal is the change you desire to make with the use of social media, and if must be specific. The goal needs to be measurable in duration, quality, and quantity.
• #22: To implement social media, planning is required and should adhere to the mission statement of the organization. Planning prior to implementation will increase the likelihood of success.
• #23: The assessment cycle is a continuous process that involves data collection, assessing the data collected, managing policies and monitoring of polices. Assessment provides an analysis of the plan.
• #24: The implementation phase would consist of discovering what other schools are doing with social media. The design and development of a social media strategy must be flexible. Once the strategy is demonstrated, deployment of the strategy takes place and once social media tools are in use disengagement occurs from the implementation phase and the process moves toward evaluation.
• #25: Evaluation is a continuous process. The usefulness of social media tools needs to constantly be evaluated, and one way to monitor this is through interviewing the audience and obtaining measurable metrics.
• #37: Prezi.com is used by many students to create interactive presentations which can be shared by others. It allows for more images and video’s instead of the standard text used in PowerPoint's. Resumes can be created and used on other sites such as LinkedIn.GradeGuru.com is a note sharing site that allows students to search for notes on specific classes and topics from more than 300 colleges and universities. Students notes are rated by other students, and monetary awards are given for students with higher ratings.Notehall.com allows students to buy or sell notes taken in class.