Short, shareable, sociable and evidence based!

Hand Holding Mobile Phone with Apps
We have a world of knowledge in the palm of our hands

We’re delighted to have support from #WeNurses for our new series Evidence for Everyday Nursing and in this guest blog #WeNurses founder Teresa Chinn gives us her view on how social media can help nurses keep up to date.

I have been a nurse for nearly 20 years now and during that time I’ve tried really hard to make sure that my practice is up to date and evidence based. I have attended many conferences and courses, read journals, and spent countless hours in the library.

In recent years keeping up to date has become easier and easier and with the advent of social media the sharing of knowledge between nurses has really taken off. I often hear myself saying that with social media we have a world of knowledge in the palm of our hands and I really believe that to be the case.

Nurses have taken to using Facebook, Tweeting, Blogging, using YouTube, Periscope and all sorts of other social media on a professional level and we are sharing information, ideas and experiences in great ways through these multiple media. However I have always been cautious and mindful of the quality of what we are sharing, we have to be careful that we are not JUST sharing ideas and experiences, although these can be very useful and interesting we run the risk of being superficial and missing the evidence base.

Evidence and research and social media are a match made in heaven

I have to say that I have always believed in the possibility of sharing evidence and research in our social media spaces, even though these spaces are often seen as frivolous. I have had many conversations with people around how we can make evidence more friendly and accessible to nurses using social media and to me it seems that evidence and research and social media are a match made in heaven, as each balances the other out. When I first started using social media someone gave me a very wise piece of advice – make everything short, sociable and shareable.

Short – well I think this is pretty self explanatory, don’t waffle on and use as few words as possible!

Sociable – this can be a bit trickier to get right, especially bearing in mind the “short” rule but essentially things need to feel friendly, community orientated and not too heavy.

Shareable – and of course anything that is produced needs to have the means to be shared easily AND people need to be inspired to share it.

Those of you who know me will know that I very much favor Twitter to connect and share and have been exploring how we can bring more evidence into our Twitter conversations from introducing the use of #EBP in Twitter chats to the advent of #WeCATS discussions in collaboration with Cochrane UK, The Mental Elf and CASP UK, so hopefully evidence and research not only remains high on the agenda in the Twittersphere but also roles models its use in a non threatening and friendly manner… and I think that both of these examples are successful because they follow the short shareable and social rules …. But they also add something, that as a nurse I feel is vital … an evidence base.

#WeCATS logos and banner
#WeCATS chats: keeping evidence high on the agenda in the Twittersphere!

Others have also been pushing forward the sharing of evidence on Twitter – the work that the Cochrane UK are doing in regards to bringing evidence into social media is wonderful. I find myself in awe of the way that they have taken #Blogshots – small, bite sized blogs shared as pictures on Twitter – and literally run with them! As a nurse I am finding them informative and relevant to my practice, as someone who is in social media I applaud the shortness, socialbleness, shareability, AND evidence basedness of them. (ok there may be a few words in the last sentence that were a little made up … but you get my point … Cochrane UK #Blogshots are fab!)

#EENursing is short, shareable and sociable

So with the latest Cochrane UK innovation – #EEnursing : Evidence for Everyday Nursing, I find myself literally jumping up and down about it. In terms of everyday evidence and bringing everyday evidence to nurses this innovative approach does that with bells on. #EEnursing is short, shareable and sociable and it brings evidence to life in a very friendly and accessible way. I love what Cochrane UK, and in particular the wonderful Sarah Chapman, have done and I love that short, shareable and sociable can also be evidence based.

We’d love to hear your views! Join in the conversation here or on Twitter, where you’ll find Teresa @AgencyNurse and @WeNurses and can talk to us @ukcochranecentr and @SarahChapman30. Check out the hashtag #EENursing too!
Creative Commons License
Short, shareable and evidence based! by Teresa Chinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.evidentlycochrane.net/short-shareable-sociable-and-evidence-based/.
For permission to use the WeCATS image, please contact Teresa Chinn @AgencyNurse. Other images may not be reproduced as they were purchased from istock.com for Evidently Cochrane



Short, shareable, sociable and evidence based! by Teresa Chinn

is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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