Great ideas can start with one Tweet! April 28, 2018, Tonja Frank, aka School Nurse T sent a tweet asking “Who wants to have a #schoolnursechat? Let’s share our experiences. Who’s in?” It was a tweet heard through the Twittersphere and before we knew it, the #SchoolNurseChat was born. The original pioneers with me in this adventure were Tonja, Lisa Kern, and Chris Amidon, all colleagues who connected through the magic of social media.
We have been hosting them for the past several years. During COVID19, School Nurse T had another brilliant idea. She suggested that our group host a #SchoolNurseZoomChat and venture into the Zoom rooms. We came up with a catchy title, “Be in the Zoom Where it Happens,” and created a password, befitting the pun; Hamilton!
We had room for 100 school nurses and the numbers grew rapidly. To support our growth and to not disappoint anyone, Holly David and our great colleagues at School Nursing Facebook Group hosted a LiveStream of our event. In total we had over 200 participants and the discussion that was supposed to last 60 minutes grew to 90!
I don’t have all of the analytics yet, but it was a good representation of school nurses across the country and some international as well. We had a small delegation from Guam! The good news is that we have picked our next date:
Monday, August 30, 2020 8pm ET.
We will share the details as we get closer and please keep the new password private. We want to get a better count on who will be joining us.
It was a wonderful, warm, lively and thought-filled discussion. School nurses shared resources, supported each other’s mental health moment and vowed to stay connected. We can do hard things, even this one, we are nurses.
For those who missed the event, or want to revisit, here is a link to enjoy!
Click the white arrow on the graphic to play the video:
