Reflections
Reflections
The Modern Professional Presence
After almost 17 years of being out of post-secondary studies and working most of my nursing career frontline, I have to say I was unsure of what to expect coming back into academic life. My previous academic endeavours included printing off every article I found and heading to the library to search for books or review literature. I read a paperback APA book to cite my work properly and crossed my fingers hoping I interpreted it correctly. YouTube was not the go-to for “how to”, google search was not the end of every sentence, and paper was still used for rough draft assignments. Not only has the academic landscape changed in almost two decades the medical field has also changed drastically. The responsibilities and expectations of every person associated with healthcare seem to have grown exponentially. Some major advancements in healthcare have been technology, moving from fully paper-operated to electronic operations, video conferencing, virtual physician appointments, virtual critical care, an outreach support for far northern communities, not to mention immediate results and information sent to your phone, everything at your fingertips. Of course, one of the greatest challenges the healthcare industry faced was the COVID-19 pandemic, but with this also came exponential growth. Healthcare needed to adapt overnight to meet patient needs both inside and outside the hospital setting. Again, taking technology to another level, and bringing on a new social connectedness through online platforms. Considering all, I feel I did not prepare myself for the adaptation and adjustment required for the new era of education. I did not account for the shift in technology, and the influence social networking and social media would have on professional development and engagement. Starting with an e-introduction on Sway, using a platform that I had never heard of or even knew existed, then moving to review my presence on social media evaluating both my personal and my professional existence. All this really made me re-evaluate what technology and social media mean to me, and how I want it incorporated into my professional life.
When I think of myself in a professional manner, I think of, a nurse, a leader, a carer, a person dedicated to constant learning and evolution in practice. I don’t usually think of social media influences or my outward presence. When I conducted a social media audit on myself, there was very little to find. I am almost muted in the social media and social networking realm. I guess I can say I really do not have a presence. In just 4 short weeks of this course, I have familiarized myself with the very basic concepts of blogs, or posts, I have created the beginning of an ePortfolio, and I have started reading comments, working myself up to actual online social engagement. I am not winning the race on participation and engagement in comments and critiques, I do understand to be successful it is part of the course, so I will push forward and continue to step out of my non-existent social presence and into the new connected world. My professional identity will not change; I will continue to see myself as a nurse, a leader, and an individual dedicated to growth and development, but I will move towards demonstrating my successes and celebrating my professional achievements in a modern way. What better way to sell my value as a professional than the largest stage in the world, social media, and online social networking?
Nursing and medicine within healthcare have always interested me. Acute hospital-based care was my ultimate dream, I never thought I would veer from it. As my nursing career extended and my experiences evolved so have my interests in nursing. I have moved from the fast-paced emergency department to an educational role in addictions, where it is not life and death split-second decision-making but precision and accuracy in content development, deciphering best care practices and transferring down expert-level knowledge. The shift in career focus opened an exciting world of change and superior knowledge gain. I started to apply literature to inform and justify my practice, leading me to this first course in the Master of Health Studies.
I was unsure what I would gain or what learning would be like almost two decades after my last academic experience. When we were asked to complete a social media audit and look at our online presence, I thought this would set me back. I do not think I have a social media presence. I was not wrong. My online social presence and connection skills were lacking. When I reflect on my online social participation, I continue to feel it is my weakest component. I have been diligent in reading classmates' posts but have struggled with commenting consistently or effectively on these posts. I complete some self-talk each week and encourage myself to do better the next. The next week comes around, the assigned content is interesting, and everyone has a different focus area and impression of the content. I read multiple posts and go blank. Why is writing down what comes naturally in face-to-face encounters so hard? I do not have this answer yet. This has been a work in progress throughout this course and is still a work in progress.
Developing an e-portfolio as a professional reflection has provided additional insight into my lack of online affiliation. It has been a great exercise to push me out of my comfort and begin applying myself outside of face-to-face networking. I read blog posts all the time and love the personal twists each writer places in the body. The blogs I typically read are about food and cooking. The writers of these pieces discuss their journey from the conception of the flavour profile or the inspiration of the dish all the way to the final product. Creating and posting blogs for this course reminded me of these writers and the importance of captivating your audience and enticing them to see your views or ideas. Once again, I have a long way to go before I have developed my comfort and style in online professional, yet casual content delivery.
The word curation came up at the beginning of this course. What does that word even mean? I was again up against an unfamiliar concept and thought I was way out of my depths. I am happy to say it did not take long before I identified what content curation was and I am now much more acquainted with some great resources to keep the information I find in a more defined space. Using Diggo and a Google Sheets spreadsheet to house all the content I discover has made locating my resources and the references much more time-efficient and effective. I no longer just rely on my search engine bookmark to house my digital content, nor do I rely on my File Explorer filing system to save downloaded content. I can read and annotate documents, highlighting and saving only the important and relevant content. This new skill and the resources I have located have helped in this course and translated to my work setting. I had an extremely inefficient way of curating resources prior to this course. With this newfound skill, I can locate previously obtained journal articles, websites, or online news articles at the click of a finger.
In this short 13-week period, I have not only discovered new information on the Canadian Health system and health in general but, have also discovered many new skills. Like with anything where there are gains and successes there are also areas that need improving. I have a long way to go in developing an online professional connection, but I feel with baby steps in the right direction, by the completion date of my Master of Health Studies program, I will be there.