Taking social media and giving it a shake…

What a difference a year makes! A year ago I was feeling thoroughly fed up with nursing, I felt unsupported and was struggling to keep up with continuing professional development. Here I am now with 2012 having started with a vengeance and I cannot imagine feeling that way ever again. 2011 was an amazing year in terms of nursing and technology and I don’t think that anyone could have predicted the way in which nurses have taken up social media and made it their own.  

I had a vision to bring nurses together to talk about nursing issues using social media and I feel very privileged that I was able to realise this with the help of Newcross Healthcare Solutions and create NurChat. NurChat has now been running since August 2011 and I am constantly amazed by the ideas, thoughts and knowledge that are exchanged through it and I hope that throughout 2012 NurChat can continue being the nurse community resource it set out to be.

Now, if I am honest with you, NurChat is was never a new concept! There are loads of Twitter chats out there and NurChat merely copied the format and applied it to nursing. However what has happened since NurChat is totally new and groundbreaking in terms of Twitter communities…….

In years gone by nurses used to live together and support one another and socialise together – of course this is no longer the case and I have heard often in recent years that nurses are no longer supportive of one another and year ago I would have agreed.  Today I would, and will, paint you an entirely different picture:  The tweeting nurse community have taken up this supporting role with one another and really care for the community.  I have seen many different levels of Twitter support from a student who was down as she found a catherterization difficult to personal tragedies and upsets … all found support within the tweeting nurse community. But it is not only through the bad times but also the good that the nurse community are supporting each other – Twitter is constantly full of well dones and congratulations for innovations and achievements in nursing, from the “I passed a test” to “I am in the Nursing Times!” praise is always forthcoming.  I have certainly both laughed and cried during 2011 with my fellow tweeting nurses.

And there’s more ….. nurses have always been renowned for their sense of humour and in the past we could often be found giggling in the sluice.  In a step that is unique to nursing the community of tweeting nurses have evolved a work of Twitter fiction “St Twitters” This virtual hospital is nursing humour at its best and is a first for Twitter. Some may perceive St Twitters as mere entertainment but I do not, I see it as much more .. it is support through humour, something that nurses have done through the ages.  Nurses often face daily heartbreaking and difficult circumstances and humour is an important coping mechanism for this.  What has astounded me is that the nursing community have taken this and transferred it on to social media, which leaves me speechless at how truly adaptable the nursing profession is.  Nurses have taken social media with both hands and firmly shaken it and impressively made it their own.

So what about 2012? What does that have in store for nurses and our nursing community?  If only I had a crystal ball! The only thing that I will say with any certainty is that the tweeting nursing community will face it together and attack it with excellence, knowledge, support and humour in mind and I will be proud to be part of it.