Advancing Social Media and Mobile Technologies in Healthcare Education
Journal Title: Informatics - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 4
Abstract
Social media and mobile technologies are important new tools in healthcare education, both to assist healthcare professionals learn and maintain their craft, and for the education of patients and families. Social media, particularly linked with mobile technologies, are being used to support healthcare professionals in higher education and maintaining professional development in the workplace. They are also becoming important as tools for educating patients and their families in relation to healthcare needs. This special issue sought submissions offering research results and case studies that advance the methodologies aimed at the application of social media or mobile technologies for healthcare education. Skiba identifies and reviews criteria and instruments that can be used to evaluate mobile apps and social media. She reviews current literature to facilitate healthcare professionals’ assessment of mobile apps and social media tools that may be pertinent to their patient population. The review highlights strategies that a healthcare system can incorporate to provide guidance for recommended mobile apps and social media tools for patients, families, and caregivers. Procter, Brixley, Todhunter, and Honey consider the opportunities advances in social media offer for developing the understanding of different countries and cultures without needing to travel. Despite nursing’s global presence, students have limited knowledge of the health and social care needs and provision outside their local environment. The paper reports on three countries, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and their collaborative efforts to provide senior student nurses with a communication channel to explore public health issues in each country. Using a closed Facebook™ page, third-year undergraduate adult nursing students were invited to take part in a three-month pilot study to test the feasibility of virtual collaboration through exchanging public health issues. The research demonstrated that social media offers students an opportunity to engage meaningfully in global exchanges in a virtual form. The paper by Mather and Cummings explores nurse supervisors’ use of mobile technology for informal learning and continuing professional development, both for their own professional practice and in their role in modelling digital knowledge transfer, by facilitating the learning and teaching of nursing students in the workplace. It emphasises the necessity of implementing mobile learning at the point of care to enable digital knowledge transfer, augment informal learning for students and patients, and support continuing professional development opportunities for all staff.
Authors and Affiliations
Elizabeth Cummings and Carey Mather
Keywords
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- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics4040035
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