My Social Media Journey When I walk through my daily life , I only come into contact with a few dozen people , or at most , a few hundred . But when I use my social media platform , I have thousands of people that I can connect with . When I use Instagram to talk about my career journey , the specialties I have worked in , and my professional development , I can touch people whose voices I have never heard and whose faces I have never seen .
I started sharing my nursing journey on social media with a mission to inspire nurses who looked like me , having come up in nursing with no familiar role models . As my career progressed and I was pursuing multiple emergency nursing board certifications , I was invited to join the Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing ’ s “ BCEN InstaCrew .” Then and now , this group of accomplished emergency , trauma , flight and critical care ground transport nurses has a special mission to inspire and support nurses on their emergency nursing specialty certification journeys and help nurses understand the ins and outs and the challenges and rewards of working in each of these emergency nursing settings . Since I enrolled in anesthesia school , my posts reflect this academic chapter in my journey .
Meet the InstaCrew Here are a few pieces of advice my # BCENInstaCrew colleagues and I share , followed by a look at each of our IG accounts along with our top social media and nursing career tips .
• First , last , and always , keep in mind that the world has access to what you post and share . Choose wisely . Think about what you have written before you hit post . Your words , your pictures , your statements , and your inter actions might have an impact in ways you had not anticipated .
• As a nurse , you have a special set of professional and ethical responsibilities including patient privacy and confidentiality . So , take the time to review the social media resources prepared especially for nurses ( ANA , 2021 ; NCSBN , 2018 ).
• Avoid getting lost in the pursuit of followers because that can skew your original intent . There are plenty of pages with excellent content that do not happen to have a lot of followers . Focus on the content , not the clicks .
• Be you . Your unique perspective , style and voice are something no one else in the world can offer .
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