The scenario
Mary is a nurse who just graduated from FSU and worked in a local hospital on a new system. In addition to her need to learn about the new system, she is looking for professional development opportunities, better job, and a community of professionals who could answer her questions promptly.
Suggested Solutions:
Mary could join nurses communities of practice, professional individuals, and organizations on Facebook. She might like to ask peers, contribute to conversations, share books, links, videos and etc.
Twitter
Mary would find many active organizations and individuals in Twitter. She can access and share information about the new system she is looking for as well as nursing news, health care, job opportunities, and much more. Connecting with individuals with similar interests can enhance her professional life and provide her an online support community.
Smilier to Facebook and Twitter, Mary would find valuable information, communities, and news on LinkedIn, but in a more professional environment.
Mary would find nursing institutes in Second life where she can virtually take classes, chat with others, and practice in real-life scenarios and simulations.
In addition, Mary could definitely use Youtube, Wikis and other Web 2.0 sites to learn and develop her skills. If you think of any other solutions to suggest for this scenario, you are more than welcome to leave a comment.
You've got the tools and uses lined up here in ways that seem quite logical.
ReplyDeleteI'd say Facebook is the least likely scenario here, mostly because many people want to maintain it as a personal life platform or avoid it altogether (hi, Amit!). Although there are some pockets in which PD occurs, I've seen it mostly used to just disseminate light bits of information. Other forums tend to host the more robust discussions.
In an area like nursing (or any medical field), there's likely a distance placed between social-oriented professional networking and content-based professional development. There are all sorts of legal issues and ethical issues related to providing medical advice online, sharing patient info (even if seeking help), etc. Closed communities might be a more comfortable venue thank some of the open social media ones.
:-) yep, social media sites won't help in nursing. The stakes are simply too high.
DeleteHi Amit, I agree with you both, but the problem in the scenario I came up with was about learning a new system and looking for professional development opportunities like job search and online support in professional communities. I do not think a nurse needs to go back to school to do these things. Agree?
DeleteAmit, I could read two comments in the email notification system but I found only one posted in the blog! Do you know why?
Also, yesterday I tweeted a couple of tweets in the class hashtag but I only saw one in there! Do you know can I fix that?
Thanks for visiting my blog :-)
Hi Sam, in a profession such as nursing, tools and software are very specific to the industry and wont be possible to gain information outside of the organization. I've worked on proprietary software - IBM Simulator; IBM Content Producer; LabWare LIMS etc. I can not find information or groups on these tools for professional development on the net. Nothing except say, general information is available. However, fields such as nursing do have short term certificate courses and tie-ups with industry. That's how Mary can learn the software - go back to school for short-term (3-6 months to 1 year) certifications :-)
DeleteAs far as jobs, she could look for job postings on job portals.
The second comment that did not get published is that for professional development, she could be attending workshops; seminars; webinars and conferences.
Hmmm...When I submitted the comment, I saw a captcha code which I may have entered incorrectly. That's the reason that you received an email but it never got published.
regarding twitter - Vanessa posted an update in the blog. I'm going to comment now :-)
Thanks Amit for elaborating on your comment. I do prefer hands-on experience too. However, one time in Second Life, I found the traffic on one of the nursing places was over 800 which means many people are gathering there!
DeleteI agree with you Vanessa.
ReplyDeletelast semester, for this presentation, I signed up using new accounts in each website and followed a couple of communities in each one as I am a nurse from FSU. I still receive notifications and emails from these communities just to see how things are going inside. I admit, I have not opened many of these emails because I was busy and I have no idea about nursing. But, I can tell that they are much much active than individuals and communities in our field!
That's insightful post and comments. specifically social-oriented vs. content-oriented.
ReplyDelete