NUR131 Research Foundations for Health Practice-Policies of Nursing

Answer:

The present era is witnessing an accelerating rise in the use of social media by professionals from different field, including nursing. Research indicates that nurses and other healthcare professionals are using social media at different junctures of their practice. Nurses use different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter amongst others to communicate with each other and share information, opinions, experiences and thoughts. Social media shore up participation, permitting for open communication. The utilisation of social media by Australian and New Zealand new nursing and midwifery graduates had not been studied previously (Nemeth et al. 2016). Tuckett and Turner (2015) conducted research aimed at studying the details of the utilisation of social media by this group of nurses and gauging their level of awareness of professional standards and policies leading the utilization of social media within their profession. In the research under scrutiny, the research question addressed by the researchers is – “Does increase uptake of social media by Australian, and New Zealand new nursing and midwifery graduates have a positive influence on their nursing practice?”

Design

The study conducted by Tuckett and Turner (2015) constituted a sub-study of the Graduate e-Cohort Study (GeS) that used the survey design. The study was perceived as a segment of the studies using the e-cohort web platform whose creator was former School of Nursing and Midwifery, the University of Queensland. The larger GeS study was carried out with the underlying purpose of undertaking an analysis of the selection of graduate midwives and nurses from the universities with regards to the employment after completing graduation as well as in the coming years. Research guidelines indicate that the use of survey design has certain limitations to it as reliability depends on a number of factors. The participants might not be encouraged to express their views. In addition, they might not feel comfortable in answering the questions presenting themselves. Chances of data errors also exist as a result of question non-response. Nevertheless, a broad range of data can be collected through this method and a larger number of participants can be involved (Houser 2016).

Sampling

A total number of 121 participants enrolled in this study. Out of this, 96% were women, and 93% of the total population was registered nurses graduating in two different years. The sample size was divided, with 54% receiving their respective degree in New Zealand and 46% in Australia. 92% were employed as midwife or nurse. The sample characteristics included employment status, employment organization, country of employment, and work setting. The authors do no mention the sampling method for final selection of the study population.

This factor is important since sampling method influences bias and increases the chances of obtaining results that are not generalizable (LoBiondo-Wood and Haber 2017). Further, the majority of the participants being women, there are chances of gender bias. The evidence gathered from the study might have been fundamentally flawed owing to such form of bias (Holloway and Galvin 2016). In addition, not all the participants were employed at the time of taking part in the studying, implying that they were not able to provide information in relation to workplace practice of using social media. To add to this, it has not been mentioned clearly regarding the sample size for midwives and that for nurses.

Ethical considerations

Ethical principles are elementary to research undertaken with human participants. These attributes are to be abided by for eliminating the risks of any unjustified or prejudiced incidents. The graduate nurses and midwives were given out an invitation in a written format from their respective nursing program responses tallied. Approval for ethical consideration was given by the Human Research Ethics Committees for the respective universities taking part in the study. According to Chadwick and Gallagher (2016) involvement of human participants in a research demands approval from the concerned committee.

Potential participants are to provide informed consent if they are keen on taking part in the research. This process involves explaining the potential participants about the aims and purpose of the research. They are also to be given the details of any possible harm that can be suffered due to the research and any concerning risks. The research paper does not mention any such steps taken. The authors of the paper also do not mention adherence to the three ethical standards; justice, beneficence and respect for participants. Whether the participants were given the option of terminating their association with the study at any given point of time through the research process also is not mentioned. Nevertheless, the positive aspect was that the contact details and the responses of the survey were stored in a separate place for maintaining anonymity as well as confidentiality of the those taking part in the study.

Data collection and analysis

The participants for the study were to register online with contact details. The GeS survey had 55 items taken from the preceding workforce research along with other literature. The pool of data reported were from Survey 7 that was collected in the year 2014 and represented Australia and New Zealand. There were multiple responses provided by one participant. There was variation in the length of the responses as some were in words while others were in sentences. However, all of the data collected were included for analysis.

Data extracted for questions 1, 2 ad 5 were considered for analysis through descriptive statistics. In addition, data from the questions 3 and 4 that were open-ended were analysed through thematic analysis and responses tallied. Responses were assigned to codes for judging them to present a fine distinction about the central theme. This method was beneficial as the aim was to extract sub-themes from within the main theme in an inductive approach (Vaismoradi et al. 2016). After conversations among the authors, the consensus was achieved about the patterns that were finalised. Sub-themes and the quotes having an illustrative nature that were used for disseminating the study findings were jointly decided. The process sustained till this research article was written.

Results

Out of 121 participants, 112 completed it by providing complete data of all questions asked of them. 93% of the respondents indicate the use of social media. There was, however, no data on the frequency of usage. 97%, 46%, 42% and 36% of the respondents indicated the use of Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram respectively. No new graduate nurses and midwives used AboutMe or Flickr, and Twitter, Google Plus , Tumblr, Vimeoor LinkedIn were minimally used. Social (95%), educational (27%) and entertainment (18%) purposes were pointed out as the purpose of using social media. The results indicated low social media usage for professional communication and employment persistence. 48% of the participants indicated that their usage of social media was less due to reason that were work-related. Other responses highlighted that they rejected the use of social media for bullying, objections and unethical or illegal purposes. 72% of the respondents stated that they had knowledge of governing standards pertaining to the use of social media for their professions. The others thought that there was doubt about any existing policy and standards for the same. Only 3% of the respondents agreed that social media usage is free for all (Tuckett and Turner 2015).

Implications for practice

Social media is a ground-breakingmethod to take part in progress and be knowledgeable of infringementpieces of information, news, events, and discussions. Use of social media in different forms is rapidly expanding at present, and so is the use by healthcare professionals, including nurses and midwives. There has been evidence for international and national bodies recognizing the implications for this widespread use of social media who are engaging continually with the significant topic. The study gave valuable insights into the extent of use of social media by nurses and midwives in Australia and New Zealand (Rolls et al. 2016).

The uptake patterns of social media by these professionals have highlighted adequately. The study results concluded that at present, the  educational ojectives and goals for nursing profession with regards to the use of social media would lead to restricted success in case other platforms are used apart from Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram. It is further concluded that an overwhelming majority of the professionals recognize the fact that social media is not to be used due to distinct reasons Ferguson  (2013).

Balancing the positive and negative aspects of using social media is necessary if suitable use is to be achieved to the optimal extent. For this successful balance between positive and negative, it is crucial to educate the nurses about the wider benefits and risks of using social media in relation to their profession. Initiatives are to be taken both on the part of the nurses and the midwives, and the nursing institutes for promoting positive utilization of social media. It is the responsibility of the institutes to educate the nurses about the prospects of using social media and the related advantages for their profession. In addition, they must also make them aware of the policies and standards that are to be followed in practice. The nurses must be accountable for reflecting on what has been taught to them and do as needed (O'Connor et al. 2017).

The study findings of Tuckett and Turner (2015) give rise to the need to undertaking further research to understand the wider perspectives of the nursing professionals. Research by professionals at an undergraduate and graduate level must have the emphasis on the repercussions of social media use for practice and policy. Studies are also to be conducted to develop the understanding of thenurses of the importance of social media as a nursing practice tool for achieving better patient outcomes. These future conclusions would definitely escort future permissive institutional policy development fostering use of social media as a clinical tool.

References

Chadwick, R. and Gallagher, A., 2016. Ethics and nursing practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Ferguson, C., 2013. It's time for the nursing profession to leverage social media. Journal of advanced nursing, 69(4), pp.745-747.

Holloway, I. and Galvin, K., 2016. Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. John Wiley & Sons.

Houser, J., 2016. Nursing research: Reading, using and creating evidence. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

LoBiondo-Wood, G. and Haber, J., 2017. Nursing Research-E-Book: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence-Based Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Nemeth, J.K., Allison, A.E., Travis, L.D. and Brown, C.M., 2016. Using social media to disseminate published evidence to nurses in a health system. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 13(2), pp.77-85.

O'Connor, S., Jolliffe, S., Stanmore, E., Renwick, L., Schmitt, T. and Booth, R., 2017. A mixed study systematic review of social media in nursing and midwifery education: Protocol. Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Rolls, K., Hansen, M., Jackson, D. and Elliott, D., 2016. How health care professionals use social media to create virtual communities: An integrative review. Journal of medical Internet research, 18(6).

Tuckett, A. and Turner, C., 2016. Do you use social media? A study into new nursing and midwifery graduates' uptake of social media. International journal of nursing practice, 22(2), pp.197-204.

Vaismoradi, M., Jones, J., Turunen, H. and Snelgrove, S., 2016. Theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 6(5), p.100.