We are a rather rare breed and usually work in small teams that are sometimes isolated from other CCN teams. This was definitely the case for me. The Isle of Wight CCN team has only 4 whole time equivalents and is geographically isolated by a rather expensive piece of water. I wanted to broaden my horizons beyond the island and start interacting with other CCN’s.
I have collected CCN’s as I have found them and now have a list of 43 of us ranging in experience, roles and from nearly all 4 corners of the UK. Using my @WeCYPnurses hat, I have run some community based chats and have been really pleased with the discussions that have taken place.
There is already loads of sharing and collecting of ideas, exploring the ‘have you ever tried’ and the ‘does anyone have any info on..’ and a great supportive network going on between us. Recently however, a few of us have wondered if there was a way of collating these tweets so that others can find them and join in. We are too small a group to warrant a full blown ‘@we’ but wonder if a #hashtag would be helpful.
Finding a #hashtag has proved somewhat tricky with the #CCN being used by a big American television network, some strange investment term, and #CCNursing being used by ‘Cougar Nurses’ (which obviously has different connotations in the US!). We have settled on #WeCCNs which has been used by @WendyJNicholson from NHS England and endorsed by @CrystalOldman of the QNI which we figure gives us a good start.
So fellow CCN’s, watch #WeCCNs with interest. Use it in any tweets you send out with any CCN information or questions and we can collate all the info in one space. We could even do a chat using #WeCCNs if we find there is a burning issue we want to explore.
I am looking forward to hopefully finding more #WeCCNs, sharing and adding them to my collection, as well as building on the network and the abundance of information that we have already built. Let’s make this a space to make some noise about the great work we CCN’s do and to join together to make a difference to the families and very special children and young people that we care for.