Twitter and the Networked Nurse: It's a conversation which is happening . . . why not join me?

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

The world of healthcare—full of traditionally slow technology adopters—has amazing potential for using social media to reduce waste, improve efficiency, allow staff and caretakers to give more time to patients, and possibly reduce healthcare costs.

Nurses are the most trusted profession. We have amazing power as health information curators!

Twitter users are often the first people to know the newest information and love to post updates about it online. It’s an interesting way to see what’s new in the world—finding out what people are talking about literally “right now.” Plus, it creates an interesting crowd from which to ask questions like, “Is anyone getting anything out of this conference? “

But don’t take my word for it. Let me introduce you to Phil Bauman.

Phil is a registered nurse….among other things…and helps physicians, nurses, and other healthcare leaders design better relationships with patients by focusing on the intersection of healthcare and emerging technologies.

You can find some of his thoughts at HealthIsSocial. He wrote the following in a post back in 2009:

“With 26 letters in the alphabet arranged within 140 characters, there are over 1.2 x 10¹⁹⁸ possible character combinations. Of course, the number of meaningful sentences is far less than that, but a point stands out: There are a virtually infinite number of short pulses of (meaningful) information that Twitter can facilitate.”

He also put together an awesome list of 140 Healthcare Uses for Twitter. (You will want to check out his ebook on Slide Share) Here are a few of my favorites:

• Disaster alerting and response
• Nurse mentoring and collaboration
• Publishing supportive care tips
• Issuing Amber alerts
• Live tweeting during nursing conferences
• Sharing research and evidence-based practice
• Issuing patient care reminders in the clinical setting
• Real time satisfaction surveys with real time follow up

So how do I get started, you might ask?

It doesn’t have to be a grand scheme. Begin like I did….take one step. Start where you are. Now is the perfect time to join me!

Go to www.twitter.com and sign up for FREE (choose a name and a password). I recommend using your real name as your twitter handle. Claim your personal brand. (You will find me @cbushrn…my whole name was already taken).

You can use Twitter on the web or on your phone—you can look at it once a day. Please don’t feel obligated to look at it and respond instantly.

Once you’re signed up, you can start “following” people and they can “follow” you. I am following people who have interesting things to say about healthcare innovation, oncology nursing, telehealth and gardening. I also follow regional weather…hey, I live in Kansas, during the summer, I need real-time access to severe weather locations!!

Start by following me (@cbushrn) and I’ll be glad to follow you.

Let’s get a conversation started! Tweet your favorite quote about innovation or change, followed by @cbushrn #disruptivenurse. Like this:

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” Demosthenes @cbushrn #disruptivenurse.

If you’d like to use Twitter and need some help, you will want to check out wenurses.com and their marrvy Twitterversity. There is something for all levels of Twitter experience!

I look forward to connecting!