Nurses work at bedside, teach in universities. They are a large part of the society yet the society fails to know about the profession.
I had to surf the internet for news and events around the nursing profession few days ago. The few I saw on colleagues WhatsApp status was not detailed. It was sought of disheartening that our dear profession is so shy away from social media.
This post is inspired by a research titled "Nurses Representation On Health News Media"
Below is the summary of the research:
- Schools of nursing find it difficult to use social media to highlight the expertise of their faculty. I am not sure of the number of SON that has websites, blogs, YouTube channel that are always updated.
Should incase you want to know about the school, write about the school, or rate the school. You will not need to know anyone who attends such schools.
Nursing is a 'professional profession' that keeps evolving daily. There is hardly a month in the year with no specific event to attend, which is to update nurses and teach them various things about modern nursing and practice.
- Health journalist's teach what they know not from their experience.
When you check newspapers, especially on weekends. There is awalys a health sector on a page or probably half a page. These health journalists are not all nurses. Nurses can contribute important aspect to health reporting and clinical journalism.
On a lighter note, I think clinical journalism should be added to the curriculum so nurses can know how to report events and write well structure articles on the nursing profession.
- Dominating social media as an individual.
Just a person can make a diffrence. We have nurses who are making difference in their own space. Nursing is a female dominated profession, and not all women are represented as expert sources in the media. Journalist are not familiar with nursing g responsiilitiesand profession, that is why they all present the nursing profession in a wrong way.
The solution to these problems:
- Nurses should make exclusive use of social media. Nurses should be proactive.
- Nurses should interact with journalists more
- School of nursing should make the use of social media like Twitter Facebook and Instagram to promote events in their schools.
Hashtag is a way to help nursing events. Hardly can you see an event in this country that does not have a hashtag.
Why do you think nursing is invisible on social media platforms?
Have do you intend to contribute your quota to this problem?
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