Technology
Technology
A lot of students initially think that because [ an article is published, that it must be ] a fantastic work and should be taken and integrated into their practice straight away. But as we study this subject, they do find that just because it’ s published doesn’ t mean that it’ s perfect and that they should [ think carefully about what they ] use to inform their practice.
Then [ a couple of years ago ] we introduced a Twitter journal club and it was quite an experience for students.
There was a lot of groundwork and preparing of students undertaken to ensure they were ready for that activity – as master’ s students they are regulated by AHPRA [ and so must ] adhere to the regulations and the codes of conduct relating to social media use for registered health professionals. [ Prior to the class, we have them ] read through a journal article and then bring along with them the CASP tool to class, prepared with a digital device, ready to answer the questions and actively participate in this activity. When they came to class, they also had to have a Twitter account set up and know how to use Twitter. So there was a bit of IT work there, to work with students to upskill some of them in digital literacy.
As a lecturer, I took on the role of Twitter chat moderator. [ We were all initially ] physically located in the classroom. The students were actually in the classroom on a digital device and answering these questions. The chat took about 75 minutes for the first activity. I would announce the question on Twitter, in public form, and use a hashtag for students to respond to.
I would engage with students using the hashtag. There wasn’ t much verbal activity within the classroom, as everyone was very focused on the task and their digital device.
We also had some additional IT support and some additional lecturers within the class … to troubleshoot any device problems or IT issues with sending tweets or so on.
The beauty of it was that we announced one question every five minutes and students could engage with each other and the lecturer through this medium. After that we were able to Storify a transcript of the whole chat and place that onto our online learning system so the students could go back and refer to that at a later date.
Overall, the students found the first time that we ran this was an amazing and unique learning experience. Not only did they find it helpful in learning about evidence-based practice and the critical appraisal of the research, but also how to use Twitter for nursing and for healthcare and to keep abreast with some of the research evidence that’ s out there, so it was quite well received.
Given the model’ s success, is it something that the faculty will move forward with? Yes, certainly. In the paper that we’ ve published, we included reflections from academics that have used this novel approach to get students to engage in evidence-based practice. There’ s a few cautionary tales about Twitter and open public forums. Students need to be careful what they write on Twitter, and risk-managing this whole public exposure on Twitter needs to be carefully thought out and planned as well.
We’ ve done subsequent Twitter journal clubs, and [ some were ] actually based outside of the classroom and a few more in the classroom as well with mixed success. We’ ve not made them mandatory learning experiences, so these are just additional opportunities for students to engage in the subject and with this activity as well. Originally in the first experience we had 60 students participate in that classroom environment. We’ ve probably done about four or five of the clubs now, outside of the classroom, so that people are notified when the chat will be on, and provided with the resources and the materials, and they’ ll log on.
I actually did one from an airport in Madrid and managed to facilitate from there. It was 8pm on a Wednesday night here in Australia, and so morning time in Madrid, and yet I was still talking with about 20 students about a paper from an airport. It really broke down the geographical barriers and boundaries with communication, and it was an instantaneous way to chat about a topic which was really well received.
Student feedback has been really, really positive around the activity, and also ratings and rankings of the individual subjects – students seemed to find this a really fun and innovative way to learn. People may not often think that Twitter can be used for professional use and to keep abreast of evidence and to engage with your professional nursing colleagues and other associations and so on. They really found it quite interesting as an introduction as to how that can be used professionally as well.
Do you hope that forums like WeNurses will be used by your students when they move into the workforce? Yeah, we certainly give them a lot of resources, pre and post the chat, and I think that’ s something that’ s really important for other academics that are considering doing something similar within their curriculum. We really follow up the chats quite well in terms of providing resources and the transcripts and so on for students. There is a lot of role-modelling as well, from academics in terms of what is professional use of different social media and to make sure students are learning about the professional obligations and professional practice that should be extended into that digital world.
We do introduce them to WeNurses as well. That is certainly something that a few of the students were quite keen to explore. These are open, global chats. They originate from the UK and they range in topics. They can be from things like handover and communication to professional issues.
They also range from things like pressure injury and use of oxygen or different medical devices, to regulatory issues as well. They’ re quite lively chats and they follow quite a structured format as well, and they’ re one-hour chats. The transcripts are available. They’ re very well organised and there is a great opportunity for interdisciplinary collaboration.
The WeNurses community is growing and we now have WeGPs chats and WeHealthVisitors chats, and I think WeParamedics chats as well. It’ s great that there’ s other disciplines now keen to adopt similar structures and use Twitter for professional discussion about some of the issues within their individual professions.
Looking forward, it would be great to host these chats with other disciplines, and certainly at UTS, it’ s something we’ re looking to explore – not just for nursing, but also across health services, management, public health, primary healthcare, pharmacy and midwifery. The possibilities for interdisciplinary focus are exciting. ■
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