Twitter has become an established way of communicating for health professionals as it provides a network of individuals to share information from practice and education. It also provides a platform to interact with service users.
Many organisations share documents related to health visiting on the day of release so it is easy to stay up to date. A great site to showcase innovative health visiting practice and share with the world is www.fabnhsstuff.net. DH Initiatives on Twitter e.g. the week of action, highlight innovation in practice and allow all to contribute.
Adding #healthvisiting to your tweets enables all tweets on this subject to be found easily on one list. Remember “nurse on line / nurse offline” and use the Nursing Midwifery Council (2012) guidelines to support us with social media practice see link: http://www.nmc-uk.org/Nurses-and-midwives/Regulation-in-practice/Regulation-in-Practice-Topics/Social-networking-sites/
NHS Employers have also produced useful guidance on using social media- see link: http://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/need-to-know/social-media-and-the-nhs/social-media-publications
Organisations supporting health visiting e.g. @iHealthvisiting and @UniteCPHVA have a large following on Twitter / Facebook and provide forums to engage health visitors, service users and other professionals that we work with. Join Twitter chats using #iHVForum and #cphvatt. Twitter offers the ideal platform to talk directly to senior leaders of our profession.
Some organisations offer closed Facebook groups where service users can gain professional and peer support e.g. Cherubs- breastfeeding support group. Increased online conversations between health visitors and service users are allowing us to receive direct feedback and build relationships to help shape future practice.
Feedback has been positive: Helen Calvert- Mum and Facebook group Lead. “I feel that engaging with healthcare professionals over Twitter has completely changed my view of the NHS. I had a pretty negative view of the health service before I joined Twitter, and that has totally changed. I see passionate people on there trying to improve things for patients and staff, engaging in conversation with parents, patients, managers and practitioners and sharing information”. Sasha Barber – Health Visitor, Practice Teacher and Fellow iHV “I liken these Twitter chats to a virtual university course…always learning (and it’s free) Sarah, Shropshire: 'I found it greatly beneficial being able to access breastfeeding peer support via social media. Accessing their support through here, for me was quicker and easier and I felt safer asking here where there is a sense of community and 24/7 access. When things were going not so great in the beginning it was always the middle of the night and posting on here felt more personal than sending an email and hoping someone somewhere managed to read it at some point. Social media allowed people to respond to my questions almost straight away and made me feel far less isolated'
As you can see there are many benefits from using social media professionally. Why not give it a go, just remember to stay professional online and have fun.
Follow me on Twitter @AndreaJohns20 Andrea Johns- Fellow iHV Health Visitor Adviser – Department of Health Health Visitor Team Leader East Cheshire NHS Trust Chat Lead on #iHVForum