Use of Social Media Webcasts and Webinars in Nursing Education
Forms of Social Media In Nursing Education
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are other social media tools that can be employed by nurses for educational purposes. With these media, users create their own profile pages where information, pictures, and other forms of media such as blogs for comments can be posted. The unlimited storage capacity on the site is a major advantage for users.
Facebook, originally designed in 2004 as a college network at Harvard University, has grown to be an international networking site with more than 500 million members, including a growing number of healthcare professionals. Of all the social media tools available, Facebook remains the most popular (IBT Reporter. 2014).
Approximately 79% of American adults using the Internet report visiting one or more Facebook pages on a daily basis (Greenwood, Perrin, & Duggan 2016). Facebook also hosts numbers of health and professional organizations, illness-based support groups, and nursing and other professional journals (George, 2011: Ventola, 2014).
It has been used by health care consumers to chronicle their experiences with illness and health care and by health professionals and health organizations to convey health-related information.Twitter is a social media service that offers free microblogging to its members. Microblogging is defined as the sharing and receiving of “tweets” that is, messages of 140 or fewer characters-with the members of one's personal network (George, 2011).
Twitter can be used by nurses and other health professionals and healthcare organizations in many ways. Formal Twitter chats can be arranged to allow for exploration of specific topics or questions, or for more general discussion. “Hashtags” that is, keywords preceded by the # symbol that are attached to each message-allow the tweets to be linked together to create a virtual conversation (Mayo Clinic, 2017b; ReferralMD , 2016).
Tweets also can be used to provide streamlined messages to patients or other health professionals, keeping them updated on important news or information. For example, nurses attending a professional conference might tweet key points or reactions to presentations. Others might tweet commentary on news or current events.
YouTube differs from the Web platforms previously discussed in that it is a video sharing platform where users upload, view, and share videos of varying lengths. Established in 2005, YouTube's popularity has grown at an astounding rate. Today YouTube reports having more than 1 billion unique users per month who share more than 300 hours of video that are uploaded to the site every minute (Smith, 2016; YouTube, 2017).
YouTube claims to reach more 18–49-year-olds than any cable network in the United States (YouTube, 2017). Users who search on the YouTube site can find multiple video clips on virtually any illness, surgery, or procedure. Videos available on the site have been designed for both professional and lay audiences.
The advantages of social media platforms for health education are numerous. Local or worldwide communities of learners can be created in a relatively simple and cost effective manner. Learning experiences on these sites can be media rich and enticing, especially for the younger population. Although some patients may need instruction on how to find, register for, and use the site, the sites themselves are easy to use and can be accessed from computers or mobile devices (Morgan, 2015).
Despite the many advantages of using social media to disseminate health related information, some concerns have been raised about their potential risks (Rozenblum & Bates, 2012). Professional organizations in nursing and other health professions have developed an array of policy and procedure documents to assist health professionals to reduce these risks. For example, the American Nurses Association (ANA) has published a set of principles for social networking as well as a tool kit to guide the nurse's use of these communication mechanisms (ANA, 2015).
Points to be Considered While Using Social Media In Nursing Education
When using social media, nurses should be aware of the following: Many social media sites have been used to market products such as tobacco, show unhealthy or harmful behaviors such as various forms of abuse, and convey bullying or biased messages that can result in psychological harm (Lau et al., 2012). Public health officials are concerned about suicide risk, particularly among vulnerable populations who may be subject to bullying behavior on these sites (Luxton, June, & Fairall, 2012).
As with other forms of electronic communication, it may be prudent to obtain legal advice before engaging in online patient-professional relationships to avoid unintentionally violating state and federal privacy laws (Dizon et al., 2012).
Maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of patients is of utmost importance. Information, photographs, and derogatory comments about them should not be posted (Barry & Hardiker , 2012; Norton & Strauss, 2013).
Remember that everything posted on a social media site is public information and may be widely distributed.
Webcasts and Webinars in Nursing Education
Webcasts, or live broadcasts over the Internet, permit audio and/or video to be transmitted to participants in multiple locations. They provide a unique mechanism for delivering presentations to users around the globe. Although webcasts allow only limited interaction, they are growing in popularity as a training device for sharing lectures and demonstrations. Podcasts are audio only webcasts, and vodcasts are video based webcasts (Erardi & Hartmann, 2008).
Webinars , or web conferencing, are similar to a webcast in that they are Internet-based programs; however, webinars do allow greater interaction. Webinars often have two components: a computer based display, such as a PowerPoint presentation or whiteboard, and a live discussion. Participants typically can join a web based conference via telephone or computer. Easy-to- use computer applications are available to assist in running online meetings or webinars.
When well run, webinars can be an effective strategy for teaching or meeting with groups of people at a distance. However, without proper planning and implementation, they can be frustrating for the individual conducting the session as well as for participants. The following guide lines can be used to ensure a smooth delivery of content and good audience participation. (Costill, 2015; Griffiths & Peters, 2009).
Allow adequate time to publicize the event. Depending on the audience several weeks to several months may be required.
Develop a lesson plan or meeting agenda in advance, mapping out both the topics to be covered and the time to be spent on each topic. Build in time for questions and discussion.
If slides or media are to be used as part of the program, upload them prior to the webinar and do a test run, making sure they can be displayed and convey the appropriate message. Make sure the font is large and clear enough to be easily read. Avoid clutter on the slides by keeping them simple.
Make sure adequate staffing is available for the webinar. A common model is to have one person who is responsible for presentation and an assistant who answers participant questions online and provides the presenter with assistance on technical issues. Someone must be familiar with the technological aspects of running the webinar to ensure a problem-free experience. Send instructions and any necessary materials to participants several days in advance.
Send a reminder about 24 hours in advance, Start early. The individuals running the webinar should arrive no later than 30 minutes prior to the start of the session and log on to the system at least 15 minutes prior to beginning the presentation. If any presenters are off site, make sure they have a way to contact the individuals running the session through an offline medium.
Reduce background noise, including muting all phone lines. As with any meeting, keep the conversation moving and the agenda on track. Make sure everyone has a chance to speak or ask questions. With a small group, you might want to call on people by name. In a large group, do not allow anyone to monopolize the session.
Follow up with participants after the session. Include a post event survey and/or evaluation form.
The Internet and Nursing Education
The World Wide Web is merely a small component of the much larger computer network called the Internet. Although the Internet does not provide the eye-catching webpages and the multimedia found on the World Wide Web, it does offer a wide range of services, many of which can be used to deliver health and healthcare education to clients. The Internet services most likely to be of interest to nursing educators include those that allow computer-facilitated communication.
While the World Wide Web provides opportunities to send healthcare messages to large groups of people in the form of educational web pages, the Internet can be used to enhance teaching by enabling individuals to communicate with one another and with groups of people via the computer. E-mail, real time chat, and e-mail discussion or Usenet newsgroups have all been used to communicate with people about health and health care, some in very creative ways.
Good and Bad Aspects of Email/Texting and Nursing Education
In a discussion of health care in the 21st century, the National Institute of Medicine (2001) proclaimed that both patients and doctors could benefit from improvements in timeliness by using Internet-based communication. Electronic messaging is a commonly used Internet technology that holds great potential for improving care, communication, and health education.
Although electronic communication was once thought to be reserved for the younger generation, it is now widely used and accepted across generations and within many countries and provides a simple and efficient way for nurses and other healthcare providers to connect with patients (Mattison, 2012; Newhouse , Lupianez -Villanueva, Codagnone , & Atherton, 2015).
Two common forms of electronic messaging are electronic mail (e-mail) and texting an e-mail is an electronic file that is sent to an e-mail address using an e-mail program that allows the user to create, send, and store messages. E-mail programs are widely available and typically free of charge.
E-mail messages can be any length and can include attachments such as pictures and video. Users read and send their e-mail messages by accessing their e-mail program account. Text messaging is a way to communicate via a mobile phone using a cell phone number. Although interest in texting in the healthcare environment is growing, e-mail communication is more commonly used.
Studies suggest that many patients are interested in communicating with their healthcare providers via e-mail. According to a national survey, 93% of adults 21 years and older indicated they would likely choose a doctor if e-mail communication was offered (Catalyst, 2014). Indeed, e-mail is universally used among various age groups and is a very popular form of communication, employed by almost all Internet users.
Patient expectations have evolved in that patients want texts and e-mails from their doc for proactively when sick or well ( Miliard , 2012). However, researchers have found that although patients want to communicate via e-mail or text with their providers, they do not have access to medical and health systems. “All functionality that we live our lives on isn't available in health care. You use your phone every day to send a text message or e-mail: you can't do that to over 90% of doctors.
This is not cutting-edge technology we're talking about. This is the standard way we live our lives” (Price, 2016, p. 2). Nevertheless, a survey of healthcare consumers revealed that although people in general like to use e-mail, 40% were unsure whether their physician uses a patient portal system and only 18% preferred e-mail and 14% preferred to receive test results via online messaging (Graham, 2014).
Although e-mail offers a quick, inexpensive way to communicate with patients, it is important that health providers encourage patients. engagement with familiar as well as emerging technologies, such as e-mail, texting, and patient portal systems, to enhance interaction with them, schedule appointments, and get test results (Crane, 2014).
For example, e-mail has the advantage of being asynchronous-that is, a message can be sent at the convenience of the sender, and the same message can be read when the receiver is online and ready to read it. Messages can be sent and responded to at any time, day or night.
As a form of enhanced communication with clients, e-mail is an approach worthy of further study by nurses. An e-mail message system gives patients who identify questions after leaving a healthcare facility a chance to get answers from a reliable source familiar with their history. Patients who are not sure how to phrase a question or feel rushed when instructions are being given in a clinical setting have a chance to compose their thoughts at home and prepare an e-mail message.
Also, from the nurse's perspective, an e-mail message system provides a simple way to check on patients-that is, to see whether they understood the instructions they: were given and to respond to new questions that have arisen. In some ways, an e-mail system is preferable to a voice messaging system. For patients who are anxious about asking questions, e-mail allows them all the time they need to gather their thoughts.
In addition, they do not have to remember the answers they are given by the nurse, as the e-mail message provides a written recording of the nurse's response.In contrast, many voicemail systems are time limited. Patients are sometimes cut off in the middle of a voice message if the message is long or if they are struggling to make themselves understood.
Other patients may hesitate to leave a voicemail in the evening or night hours when they know no one is there to respond. However, by the way e-mail is designed, patients can feel comfortable sending messages at any time.
Unless a mechanism is in place by which patients can contact the nurse with questions, they may be at risk for making a mistake with their self-care that may have serious consequences for their health. Simply telling patients to call if they have questions is often inadequate. A call to a busy office or clinic usually results in a call back by the nurse and the patient having to wait by the phone for an answer.
Even calling hours can be problematic because they imply that the patient is free to call only at the designated hour.An e-mail message system is simple to implement. Patient e-mail addresses need to be identified as part of the routine information-gathering process for new clients. Because e-mail addresses are likely to change, they need to be updated, just like telephone numbers, whenever a patient visits the office, clinic, or other setting within the healthcare delivery system.
It is a good idea to have more than one person be responsible for responding to e-mail messages, so that questions and concerns can be addressed even when a staff member is away because of vacation or another time-out of the office. One way to accomplish this goal is to have messages sent to a mailbox rather than to an individual. Because more than one person can be given access to an electronic mailbox, continuous coverage can be established.
If continuous coverage is not provided, it is important that patients know how long they can expect to wait to receive answers to their questions.E-mail systems can be set up to serve a variety of purposes. If post teaching follow-up is desired, for example, e-mail offers one way for the nurse to initiate contact after the patient has left the healthcare delivery system.
The nurse can get in touch with the patient via e-mail following a teaching session to convey interest in how he or she is doing with a medication regimen, treatment, or other types of instructions given. For example, the e-mail message could stress important points that were made during the teaching session, such as, “Remember to take your pill around the same time every day.”
Also, an e-mail message could be used to assess the patient's understanding of what was taught. For example, a nurse might ask, “At what time of day did you decide to give your child his medication?”Informational resources also can be shared via e-mail by embedding links to websites in the e-mail message.
In all cases, the nurse should encourage the patient to get in touch if questions remain. Any follow-up system will take time and commitment on the part of the organization. Time and resources must be allocated. if the system is to work effectively.An e-mail system can also be established as a mechanism to answer questions and exchange health related information with patients who have received services at a specific healthcare organization.
An e-mail question box can provide easy access to the nurse or other health educator who can serve as a reliable source of information.For this type of system to work, the e-mail address for the mailbox needs to be widely distributed and easy to remember. For example, a mailbox address such as Questions RD Clinic.org would be easy to remember because it includes the purpose of the mailbox and the name of the organization.
The e-mail address can be placed on the bottom of written instructions, teaching materials, appointment cards, and other sources of communication with the patient. A description of the service and instructions for use should be distributed as well. For example, it may be helpful for patients to know who will be answering their questions, the types of questions that can be submitted, and the typical response time.
Also, it is very important that patients understand that an e-mail message system is not intended to replace a visit or phone call when they need to see or talk with a healthcare provider about an immediate problem.When sending e-mail messages, nurses should remember that electronic communication differs from face-to-face communication:
Electronic communication lacks context. Without cues such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and body posture, e-mail messages can appear cold and unfeeling. Although emoticons and emojis (symbols like smiley faces used to express emotion) are commonly used by people who send e-mail messages, they may not be appropriate for all professional correspondences. However, a carefully constructed e-mail message can convey the intent of the sender.
Although electronic communication is convenient, it may take longer in that the sender could wait hours or days before the message is received and answered. For this reason, it is very important that an e-mail response to a patient question be clear and provide sufficient detail so that it does not generate more questions that cannot be answered immediately.
Furthermore, using e-mail may be inappropriate for communicating urgent issues or messages that need to be read or responded to quickly.E-mail messages provide a written record. A printed copy can serve as a handy reference for a patient and eliminates any questions about which information was shared. Conversely, e-mail messages can serve as documentation of inaccurate or inappropriate information.
When responding to a patient question, it is vital that the patient's record be reviewed and that the response to the question be accurate and carefully thought out. Copies of the e-mail message sent to the patient should be placed in his or her medical record.
Electronic communication can never be assumed to be private. This reminder is especially important in the era of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations. The healthcare provider must take steps to ensure privacy at both the healthcare facility and the patient's computer.
It is suggested that patients sign a consent form if health related information is to be shared via e-mail and that they be given instructions for safe use of the e-mail system (American Medical Association, 2017).
Not all information may be appropriate to share in an e-mail message. For example, it may not be appropriate to send abnormal test results to a patient in electronic form. It is also important that both nurses and patients understand that violations of privacy can occur in many ways.
For example, patients who send e-mail messages from work may not be aware that their messages may be stored on servers and hard drives even after they have been deleted. In some cases, the employer may have legal access to this information (Guerin, 2017a, 2017b).
E-mail messages also can be easily for-warded. The nurse, therefore, should assume that the client may choose to share a response with others. Privacy can be ensured at health-care facilities by requiring a password-protected screen saver at all workstations.
The American Medical Association has issued guidelines on physician patient e-mail exchange and the Joint Commission prohibits texting to issue patient care orders, citing patient safety concerns and the increased burden on nurses to enter text orders accurately in the HER (JD Supra, 2017 ).
E-mail communication between nurses and patients has tremendous potential to enhance teaching. However, despite the increased use of e-mail among the general population, it is important to remember that not every patient has a computer, computer skills, or access to e-mail. For this reason, a backup system such as voicemail should be made available so that the needs of all patients will be met.
Text messages differ from e-mails in that they are short messages that are exchanged via cell phone or another handheld device. Unlike e-mail messages, which are free, text messages involve a small charge.
In recent years, texting has become a common form of electronic communication, especially among the younger population where texting has replaced e-mail as the preferred method of communication (Woolford, Blake. & Clark, 2013), surveys indicate that over 70% of all mobile phone users send text messages (Burke, 2016).
Text messaging is growing in popularity because ease of use and immediacy of delivery. Because large numbers of people carry their cell phones with them all the time, delivery of text messages is very quick.
Furthermore, text messages can be sent and received anywhere cell phone connectivity is available. Despite the advantages, the following are reasons why health-care professionals should be cautious about sending text to clients (Greene, 2012; HealthIT . gov, 2013: Nield, 2017).
Text messages are not considered to be secure as they are not encrypted and may be stored by the wireless carrier.
Text messages can be stored on a cell phone or handheld device definitely. Because mobile devices are not always password protected and may be shared with others or recycled, text messages may not be kept private.
Within healthcare organizations, IT departments do not typically monitor text messages and text messaging may not be part of the organization's HIPAA compliance plan.
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