Like me, you may be relatively new to Social Media, you may post the odd Facebook holiday picture or look at some YouTube postings. But, if like me, you will not for one moment have considered that a platform such as Twitter might inform and develop your professional practice. I have been using twitter for less than a year, I tweet personally as @gbtpo and on behalf of the Apollo website @apollonursing. Initially I was very wary, concerned I might make a mistake, post something unprofessional or get the wrong end of the stick when replying to twitter chats.
I can now honestly say I cannot envisage being without it, it’s a speedy source of breaking news, you get to read the thoughts and suggestions of key nursing and healthcare leaders and you can ask questions, ask for help or suggestions and there is always someone there with an answer.
But a formal part of my professional development? Really… Well actually yes. In this editorial http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jan.12504/abstract Calvin Moorley (twitter account @CalvinMoorley) and Teresa Chinn (twitter accounts @AgencyNurse and @WeNurses) clearly articulate how twitter can be used as a learning resource and how, through reflection, this learning can be used for your PREP CPD.
So do have a read and consider how as a specialist nursing community we might use Twitter to share, learn and disseminate practice evidence – I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
If you are new to twitter, just want to have a look see, go to http://www.wenurses.co.uk/ , the process is clearly explained and in the resources section there is Twitterversity – step by step training to get you tweeting with confidence!
Further reading: SoMe: Connecting the Specialist Nursing Community Journal of Advanced Nursing, Using social media for continuous professional development