Explore
the World of Digital Communication
It should come as no surprise
that School Nurses are the Nursing specialty that has embraced digital
communication, technology, and social media. After all, we work with 21st
century students and we see the potential of digital communication every day in
the classrooms and hallways.
School Nurses know that social media is a powerful tool but that digital
communication encompasses a much broader toolbox than just Facebook and Twitter
– it includes utilizing a variety of media ranging from websites, audio, video,
graphics, and text media to communicate effectively with various audiences.
When I talk with School Nurses in my school district and across the nation about
how they incorporate technology into their practice, I have been struck how we
nurses follow a predictable course of developmental milestones as we explore the
world of digital communication and make decisions about how to incorporate it
into our practice.
The first step in this development and exploration is resistance. Since most of
us are digital immigrants rather than digital natives, we nurses can remember
being resistant to technology and digital communication at first – worrying that
email and text communication were going to take the place of face-to-face client
interaction. We discovered that effective digital communication enhances
one-on-one client interaction rather than replaces it.
The second step in our development towards becoming 21st century nurses is
discovering the problem statement or impetus for change. For many school nurses
the impetus for exploring digital communication was to keep up with their
students, to keep up with their own children, or to keep on a par with teacher
colleagues. Another frequently cited impetus to expanding communication
technology skills is involvement with our professional organizations. One school
nurse recounts how amazed her children were to see the website she built for her
NASN affiliate school nurse organization. Other school nurse leaders learn to
manage a Facebook page or promote a “Tweet the Conference” initiative for their
school nurse organization.
Success with one form of digital communication opens the realm of possibilities
and makes us willing to explore new platforms. This is the third stage in our
digital development - exploration. We are not going to adopt every new digital
platform that comes along but we are starting to understand the pros and cons of
different technologies and social media platforms in both our professional and
personal lives.
Learn one. Do one. Teach one. That model now applies to technology and digital
communication. The fourth stage is sharing your skills and teaching other school
nurses to explore the digital communication toolbox. That is the model of the
NASN Twitter Mentors at #NASN2014 and #NASN2015. That is the model of
School Nurse Blogs.
So this School Nurse Day - face the resistance, find your impetus to explore the
world of digital communication and then, share your story.
I’d like to hear from you. How did you overcome your resistance to try new
technology or Social Media? What led you to jump in anyway? How are you sharing
what you’ve learned?
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