My Twitter focus is primarily school nurse related. I use Facebook for fun and family news and Twitter is my go-to social media space for professional use. Most recently I have used Twitter to share my passion for #NursingActivism, especially around the issue of violence as a public health crisis.
Twitter is a tool for social activism through social media. Activism, advocacy, and connectedness are all essential to being effective school health leaders. I launched my newly minted website: www.relentlessschoolnurse.com on Twitter and immediately started to see it being shared and accessed. The connectivity of Twitter amazes me daily. I have met creative and passionate colleagues through the magic of responding to a Tweet. There is a sense of community out there in the Twittersphere for which I am very grateful.
Twitter is what I imagine morse code or getting a telegram was like in the last century! It is fast, abbreviated, but powerful. You can share your nursing perspective to a wider audience than I ever imagined. I have connected with nurses across the pond in England, where they have a @WeNurses and @WeSchoolNurses. My Twitter friends in Scotland have a goal to become the very first @ACEAwareNation and I applauded their efforts by sharing their successes in Tweets. I have met the brilliant nurses from @centerHMP, who introduced me to the Woodhull Study Revisited.
In the world of school nursing, Twitter friends helped coordinate a #SchoolNurseChat that created a wonderful opportunity for collegiality and conversation around the challenges and opportunities we face every day. The most important work I have done on Twitter though is around activism and advocacy to #PreventGunViolence. #SchoolNursesDemandAction is a grassroots movement to bring awareness to the contagion of violence. This has grown to a broader group of #NursesDemandAction, which involves nurses from all specialties and parts of the country who are leveraging our position as the most trusted profession to be a force for change.
I encourage my colleagues to explore the benefits of Twitter as a platform for advocacy and use your expertise as a health thought leader whether in your own school community or on a national level. Voices of nurses are needed now more than ever! Be part of the conversation, educate by sharing a helpful article, talk about your focus, crowdsource ideas for a project, tell your school nursing story! Write a blog post and then Tweet about it!
Here is an example of a recent Tweet I posted to share a blog post:
Please reach out to me if you have any questions about Twitter! A very special shout out to @BethMattey, immediate Past President of NASN for her relentless efforts to encourage school nurses to Tweet with the #TASNTTT – Teach a School Nurse to Tweet Tuesday. @SheilaCaldwell is the original Twitter mentor to so many school nurses. A very special #Tweet of appreciation to you Sheila!
