Carol Bush, BS, RN

Carol Bush explains a few key strategies to make LinkedIn work for your nursing career.

Carol Bush, BS, RN, is an oncology nurse navigator with the Midwest Cancer Alliance. She has a passion for helping medical teams learn to embrace innovation and thrive in a patient-focused environment.

Nurses can access the collective knowledge of their peers, engage in discussions, and participate in collaborative projects whenever and wherever they like.

I believe mastering conversation strategies via social media is as essential to today's nursing practice as our stethoscopes and our brain. Why?

Last fall, I started working with a couple of nursing colleagues on a project which involves LinkedIn training for oncology nurses. The number one concern voiced ahead of the training by roughly a quarter of those nurses . . . and hundreds more in my personal conversations over the last year?

Pretty sure my mom would say questioning the status quo started at a very young age . . ."If I said the moon was white, you would say it was black...just to be different." I recall feeling frustrated when my kindergarten teacher did not want me to ‘color outside the lines.' Why not?

To me, the statement means that no matter how much someone agreeing with you might try to represent you, having the unique experience of being you and being where decisions are made means volumes more. All too often, if you aren't part of the decision making, you will likely get left out, or worse yet, get served on the menu.

Carol Bush, BS, RN, Patient Navigator, Midwest Cancer Alliance, The University of Kansas Cancer Center, discusses the role of oncology nurse navigators in healthcare reform.