Social Media in Nursing and Health Policy: A Commentary

Siobhan O'Connor, Aisha Holloway

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Abstract

The technological age has brought innumerable hardware devices and software applications, with social media being one of the most popular online tools to connect with others and share information. Nurses use a range of social media platforms for personal and professional reasons. Nurse educators have used social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to teach students (O’Connor, Jolliffe, Stanmore, Renwick, & Booth, 2018). Nurses have used podcasts with patients to share experiences to inform practice. Some nurses are active bloggers, using this means to disseminate research findings (BMJ Blogs, 2018). And, many nurses use LinkedIn for professional networking and career development. But nurses’ use of social media to affect health policy has not been explored.

To address this gap, one of the authors studied the effect of Twitter on engaging nurses to inform the development of a new nursing strategy (O’Connor, 2017). In this commentary, we summarize the research and provide additional insights into nurses’ potential use of social media to affect health policy.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)188-190
Number of pages3
JournalPolicy, Politics, & Nursing Practice
Volume20
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Nov 2019

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