1NURSE LEADERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA Introduction The transition from a student to a practitioner presents a professional growth for the individual but also a challenging experience for a registered nurse who has graduated recently. These registered nurses are joining a new environment and experience different barriers (Kumaran & Carney, 2014). Some of the challenges faced during this time include effective communication and working with the diverse healthcare professionals in a team, and time management to provide a safe care plan for the patient. During this period of transition, the newly graduated registered practitioner needs to follow the guiding standards of practices for registered nurses carefully, identify challenges in the new role and plan out strategies to overcome these barriers (Démeh & Rosengren, 2015). This paper discusses the significance of the document on social media usage by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, reflection on personal experience as a newly graduated registered nurse, challenges faced in leading the team and several strategies to manage these challenges. Significance of the Social Media document in patient safety The term social media acquires a different meaning with changing times. In general, this term is used for internet-based applications, which help people to exchange opinions, share ideas, and deliver messages in real-time. These applications also allow people to communicate in the form of images, videos, blogs, to name a few. Nursing and other healthcare professionals also use social media to transfer necessary information to their patients to improve public health. Hence, these professionals are required to stay updated with the latest technology to achieve these ends (Ventola, 2014). The most commonly used social network channels by them include WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to enhance the safety and quality of the health care services delivered by enabling access to the correct information at the right
2NURSE LEADERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA time. The use of social media is influencing significant changes in the practices and habits of nursing researchers and practitioners. For instance, social media sites such as the Wikis are a medical blog that enables patients to receive details about specific diseases or for public health promotion (Gorea, Gorea & Gorea, 2016). Frequently, social media may be misused, leading by the nursing profession, which can result in serious harm to the patients. Thus, the government needs to regulate the use of social media by these professionals. One such step taken by the government under the Australian Health Practitioner Regulatory Agency is the issue of the document called Social Media: How to meet your obligations under National Law. This guidance helps nurses and other healthcare practitioners in understanding their obligations in the use of social media and accordingly meeting the same. The required obligations to be met under this document includemaintainingconfidentialityandobligationsofprivacy,tocomplywiththe professional roles as mentioned with Code of Conduct of their respective Board, maintain professional boundaries, ensure that the information being presented is not misleading or false and is supported by credible evidence (Ahpra.gov.au, 2020). This document described above is also essential as it improves patient safety from dangers such as violation of confidentiality, breaching the boundaries of the relationship of the practitioner with the patient, defaming co-employees or colleagues and unintentionally exposing personal details to employers and consumers. Also, as the information shared or posted on social media can be circulated rapidly, the information must be posted carefully. This is also one of the chief guidelines in this document. Experience of leading a team as a new graduate nurse The transition from a student to a registered nurse was an essential change in my life. It brought a complete shift in my duties and roles as a professional practitioner. Within six
3NURSE LEADERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA months, I was assigned as the leader of a small team to improve the quality of activities related to the use of social media among nursing professionals. This role of a leader increased my responsibility and is just a beginner, I faced several challenges. My approach towards attaining the goal of patient safety was by targeting the issues prevalent in the workforce by questioning the ongoing nursing practices. Consequently, I led my team into using the available social media spaces to examining the current nursing habits, inculcate evidence in the profession and driving excellence in this field of nursing as is also stated in Standard one of the Standards of Practice outlined by the NMBA. As per this Standard, registered nurses are required to think critically, analyze the nursing practice and utilize the most suitable evidence available in making decisions to ensure excellent care services to the patient in terms of safety. Challenges in leading the team As a newly graduated registered nurse, my role of leading a small team into quality improvement regarding the use of social media networks was accompanied by various challenges. The first and the most fundamental challenge was that being a new joiner, I was not very well acquainted with the roles and skills of my team members. This caused difficulty in understanding the potential of each of my members and delegating the tasks accordingly. Another challenge experienced during my term as a leader was the multi-generational make- up of the team. The team under me consisted of people of different age groups. Hence, the mindset of each age group was different from the other. As a result, a diversity of beliefs, expectations, attitudes and work habits was observed in terms of the application of social media in patient care, its acceptance in nursing habits, issues related to confidentiality and maintaining professional obligations (Douglaset al., 2015). Also, another challenge faced includes maintaining a healthy work culture and to keep the team members actively engaged
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4NURSE LEADERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA in their respective roles. As the team comprises of people from diverse backgrounds and expertise in nursing, it is crucial to maintain a suitable work culture within the team. As I had joined just recently, I was not fully aware of the work culture within the clinic and was still learning about it. This presented a severe challenge in understanding the gaps in a work culture that must be eliminated within my team. The fourth challenge that I faced as a newly joined nurse leader was the pressure. The transition from a student to a registered nurse with the responsibility of a small team increased the work pressure tremendously. I faced difficulty in dealing with the increased workload of supervising the work of each member and ensuring patient safety, all according to the Standards of Practice. Increased work pressure led to work-related stress and I felt like my functional capacity was deteriorating. Strategies to manage the challenges After realizing the challenges and issues as a nurse leader, various strategies were developed for the management of these barriers to improve patient safety through the effective use of socialmedianetworks.Thefirststrategyimplementedtomanagethechallengeof distributing individual tasks according to the expertise of the members was by direct communication regularly (Sinek, 2014). This helped in understanding the potential and interests of each of the member to do the tasks and delegate each of them with their functional roles according to the standard two of NMBA nursing practices. This also increased the overall output of the team in achieving the goal. The strategy undertaken to maintain work culture was by coaching and building the team. Training the team and inculcating teamwork within the members is a common but effective way to maintain a healthy work environment and engaging the people (Moeet al., 2015). This strategy is also useful in managing the multi-generational challenge observed in the team. The diversity in opinions helped in revising the plan and monitoring the progress of the team as well, which is
5NURSE LEADERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA also in line with the Standard seven of the Standard of Practice suggested by the NMBA (Cashinet al., 2017). Another strategy to overcome the work pressure was by delegating the task, narrowing down the focus of the team and maintaining a balance in work and personal life (Nelson III, 2017). I had set short-term goals of the team focusing on specific subjects at a time to reduce the workload. For instance, the overall goal of the team to improve patient safety related to social media was subdivided into different stages, dealing with one stage at a time such as ensuring the credibility of the evidence identified in current nursing practices. Conclusion In conclusion, the transition from a nursing student to a registered practitioner is exciting as well as challenging. Also, with the advent of social media networks in delivering patient care, the issues of privacy and professional conduct and ethics have become extremely important. Appropriate guidance is necessary to regulate the usage of social media among nursing professionals.Besides,anewlygraduatedregisterednursewiththeresponsibilityof managing a small team into improving patient outcome related to social media faces several challenges which can be overcome by suitable strategies and interventions while considering the standards of practice outlined by the NMBA.
6NURSE LEADERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA References Ahpra.gov.au. (2020). Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency - Social media: How to meet your obligations under the National Law. Retrieved 22 March 2020, from https://www.ahpra.gov.au/Publications/Advertising-resources/Social-media- guidance.aspx Cashin, A., Heartfield, M., Bryce, J., Devey, L., Buckley, T., Cox, D., ... & Fisher, M. (2017). Standards for practice for registered nurses in Australia.Collegian,24(3), 255-266. Démeh, W., & Rosengren, K. (2015). The visualisation of clinical leadership in the content of nursingeducation—aqualitativestudyofnursingstudents'experiences.Nurse education today,35(7), 888-893. Douglas, M., Howell, T., Nelson, E., Pilkington, L., & Salinas, I. (2015). Improve the function of multigenerational teams.Nursing management,46(1), 11-13. Gorea, R. K., Gorea, A., & Gorea, A. (2016). Role of social media in the practice of nursing science.Glob J Nurs Forensic Studogy,1(1), 1-3. Kumaran, S., & Carney, M. (2014). Role transition from student nurse to staff nurse: Facilitating the transition period.Nurse education in practice,14(6), 605-611. Moe, N. B., Cruzes, D. S., Dybå, T., & Engebretsen, E. (2015). Coaching a global agile virtualteam.In2015IEEE10thInternationalConferenceonGlobalSoftware Engineering(pp. 33-37). IEEE. Nelson III, K. E. (2017). Nurse manager perceptions of work overload and strategies to address it.Nurse Leader,15(6), 406-408.
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