Thing 11 -Twitter

I still unsure about twitter - every time I go onto it I seem to get lost ... or totally absorbed and sidetracked - I can't decide! The amount of information on there is very humbling and if I'm being honest, I do find it a little overwhelming. I find the platform very different from facebook and perhaps that is where the problem lies - I'm trying to get it to conform to something that it is not every going to be. My Twitter is professional only and I find that a big challenge is finding time to explore and become truly familiar with it - with only 17 tweets I still view myself as a beginner but have gained confidence from this exercise by discovering that I knew perhaps a little more than I thought I did! I have found it fascinating to search for ideas and follow influential people in my field as well a colleges that I have met face to face as well as those who work further a field. I feel that my twitter journey is just at the beginning but I look forward to coming back and caring out the more advanced activities. 

My Twitter dictionary: 

Tweet - a micro blog - can be words (very limited) images or videos.

Follow Feed - The ability to see all of a persons tweets and settings can allow you to be notified when they post something new. 

Direct Message - A personal message sent from one person to another

Retweet - Re posting of a picture, microblog or video that somebody else has posted first. this can be done either with or without comment.  

Hashtag - a way to search and organise ideas - #SSSC23things groups all information about 23 things and allows a person to search for information. 

Handle - Twitter username - mine is Sarah.Nicol@SLN2018

Mention - Using the @ symbol to alert someone to have them notified about your post - similar to facebook tagging. 

Thing 5 - Social Media #1

It struck me how much guidance there is out there and yet how scared we still seem to be. There is The digital strategy, NHS social media policy, advice from HCPC, NMAHP advice to name but a few. Are there too many perhaps? Is one succinct document preferable? It was fascinating to look at the different styles of Social Media management and to discover that I am both content and custom; professionally I use Twitter but there is nothing on my Facebook page that I wouldn't want my boss or a perspective employer to see. I am currently looking at the development of a social media page for my improvement project for my NMAHP Digital Leadership course and therefore felt quite comfortable with this area - the key for me is going to be to inspire others.

Thing 4 - Digital Footprint

As I uploaded my holiday snaps onto my PC I was asked the question 'do you wish to upload all?' I merrily hit yes and then was slightly confused as I didn't recognise the pictures in front of me. Confusion gave way to discomfort and then realisation - unwittingly I had uploaded pictures from my husbands phone whilst he was on an expedition in Canada. It felt like a total invasion of his privacy and was so easily done. A couple of days later I sent a picture to a friend of a surprise sign my daughter had made for his return and then immediately realised my mistake - if I could see what he was doing, he could see what I was doing. Absolutely no harm done either way but it did demonstrated that the information we assume is our own is actually not. Luckily a google search revealed a couple of news paper articles but I was horrified that my maiden name had my home address linked to it - it's not information that I would ever share with a service user, yet it was readily accessible. The video was a good reminder and also very true - the first thing I did after meeting my daughters new nursery teacher was to google her and search for her on Facebook - it would be naive to think that parents of the children I work with don't do likewise. The location history was also fascinating and showed where we had travelled over the last few years. On reflection, being aware and understanding it will be our biggest protection.

Thing 3 - Why Digital?

For me, digital is no more of a choice than patient records or embracing best practice. I believe that digital health is essential to care provision that working without it is dangerous for both staff and service users. The vast majority of staff use technology in their daily lives but hesitate to use it professionally. Some of the barriers identified I agree with - hardware and resources(or lack of) are frequently reported by staff but disagree that the use of digital health takes you further away from those who we help and wastes time - I would actually say that the opposite is true - embracing digital health allows us to connect with our service users in mediums with which they are comfortable and familiar and, when used correctly, increases efficiency of care. Surely efficiency and quality  are the basis for any health and social care advancement and digital health is no different. I was fascinated to see from the informatic that managers believed their staff last capable with digital technology and was pleasantly surprised when the questionnaire demonstrated that I see digital capability as a strength. We need to get all the workforce digitally capable so that we can provide effective and efficient care in a medium that is familiar to our service users. Digital diaries saves time and energy trying to work out time for staff to meet, VC / GoMeeting / attend anywhere and LYNC reduce the need for face to face contact, use of virtual reality can reduce anxiety and therefore reduced the need for sedation during certain medical procedures and electronic notes allow safe communication of patient information - these are jest a few examples of the benefits of digital health.

Open Badges

Before today I hadn't heard of open badges but have to say it is an area which sits very comfortably with me. I am very familiar with learnpro and love the concept of being able to clearly evidence learning without formal qualifications. My reason for this is the deep seated belief that what makes me good at my job does not solely rely on my formal qualifications but with time so precious it's so important to be able to evidence learning and demonstrate commitment to online learning.  I suppose my main reflection is why I don't know about open badges? is it a reflection on me, the industry in which I work or the badge system itself? Either way I am ready to embrace the world of open badges.

Facing the fear

What have I done? I'm sitting here 23:00 on a Sunday night wondering why on earth I have signed up to something else! But in all honesty I was desperate; In April I signed up to Digital NMAHP Leadership course and my social media project has ground to a spectacular stop... I have one hundred excuses on the tip of my tongue including the age old NHS favourite - 'my clinical commitments are just too high' and whilst that is absolutely true, its never going to be any different and therefore requires a leap of faith to jump away from the every day to do something different in the hope that it eventually comes full circle and improves the care we deliver in an innovative and efficient way. My hope is that '23 things' will motivate, inspire and support my project development because if the truth be known, I'm scared of social media and my proposed project and am using high clinical commitments as something to hide behind. Today this hiding stops. I Sarah Nicol, practicing Occupational Therapist, will no longer hide and prevaricate. I will embrace and learn and, yes, make mistakes and that is okay. Today I have set up and written my first blog - let the fun begin!