Five Reasons Why Allied Health Faculty Should Use Social Media

For the longest time I put off doing anything with Twitter. In fact, I opened an account only after a co-worker, the wonderful and prescient Kirk Pedrick, kept bugging me about it. And I hated it. Thought it was stupid. Boy, was I wrong. Not only is Twitter enormously useful—if it's used properly—so are many other social media, particularly Facebook, LinkedIn, and blogs of people in your field. (I haven't done anything with wikis yet, so I left them off my list.)

Turned out that I was using Twitter improperly. I didn't understand it and didn't give it a good enough try. Same thing with Facebook, which I initially found was fine, not bad, okay for maintaining contact with old friends, but that's about it. I saw little value for my business interests.

Wrong again. I think Facebook and Twitter both have enormous potential, not just for me, as an acquisitions editor, but the more I use them, for allied health faculty and students as well. Here are my top five reasons why.

1. Collates news you're interested in. It doesn't take much time on Twitter to realize that news pertinent to you gets to you fast, without you having to rummage through tons of newspapers, magazines, and the like. Here's an example from today. I noticed a post on Twitter about a study in England that caught my eye, a study about kids who blog, text, or use social networking websites being more confident about their writing skills. The article came from the BBC, which I never watch. But the study is interesting and directly applicable to schools everywhere, and not just for children. I believe that our college students can improve their writing skills using social media as well.


2. Now, I doubt I would have seen that article if it hadn't been for Twitter. I doubt you would have seen it either if it wasn't for this blog entry. But I saw immediately its potential impact on how we teach allied health students in our community and career colleges, and I'll bet you can see it too. Twitter. didn't keep this news to myself, of course. I "retweeted," so people who follow my tweets (those poor buggers) would see it too. And I posted the link on my business Facebook page so my friends—allied health faculty, practitioners, authors, and colleagues—could learn about it too.


3. Opens new avenues of thought. I've begun to think a bit differently now that I'm using social media. It's hard to define but I think mostly I've become more creative in my job. I've always been creative, a trait my superiors have consistent lauded, but after so many years in the publishing business I think perhaps I had begun to get stale. I kept track of trends but mostly after the trend had gained solid ground. Now I'm following trends as they happen. I'm also finding and learning things I never would have found and learned before purely as a result of being exposed to the thoughts and news posts of so many people I never would have encountered in any other setting. I think the same thing would have to ring true for other professions, particularly teaching in allied health care.


4. I'm writing again. That may not seem like much to you but it's huge for me. As an acquisitions editor I write constantly. Constantly. But I'm writing e-mails, mostly, or contract notes, a formal document we prepare for our decision-making group when we have a new book we want to publish. Contract notes are rather formulaic and require little creativity. But this blog, which I'm hoping will grow into something my authors and potential authors will find useful, helps feed my desire to write. Facebook and Twitter help feed that desire as well, while also serving what I hope will be an ever-growing circle of followers, some of whom might choose to write for me and F.A. Davis over a competitor because they've come to know me a bit and trust what I have to say.


5. It makes good business sense. I use Facebook and Twitter and write this blog to attract potential authors, find new authors and reviewers, and keep in touch with the markets I serve. Pretty straightforward, don't you think? Wouldn't it stand to reason that, say, medical assisting program directors who tweet and maintain a Facebook site or blog might attract potential new students and faculty members simply or even largely because of their presence in social media? I think it does, and I think with these media only growing in popularity, now is the time to get on the bandwagon. Give yourself time to work out the kinks, to get used to using social media, to build a content base, and to build up your cadre of friends and followers. It just makes sense.


6. It makes good pedagogical sense. According to the National School Boards' Association, social media should be adapted for use in the classroom because:

96% of students with access to the Internet build social networks.

50% of teens say they talk to their peers about schoolwork online (IM, blog or social networking sites) or via text messages.

60% indicate that they discuss education-related topics, such as college and career planning.

Your students use social media constantly. Why? Because they find it engaging, interesting, informative, and just plain fun. So why not implement the same media for pedagogical purposes? It makes absolutely NO SENSE not to.

Next blog: The Drawbacks of Social Media in Schools and How to Deal with Them

Hey, NANDA! Watch Your Language!

This one is a beaut. DotMed News carried a story a few days ago about the need for a standardized nursing language, about which I totally agree. Then the article quoted T. Heather Herdman, PhD, RN, Executive Director of NANDA International (NANDA-I). This organization, according to its website, "exists to develop, refine and promote terminology that accurately reflects nurses' clinical judgments." In the article Herdman discussed the value of standardized terminology in the effort to reduce largely preventable errors and accidents, including falls, medication errors, sponges left in abdominal cavities after surgery, and so forth.

Here's where my pain comes in. She is quoted as saying, "A patient care plan written in a language that is understood by all will reduce the risk of never events. It is critical that this point is not lost as we tackle avoidable errors in patient care."

Did I hear her correctly? "Never events"? That's what the profession is calling a med error? What are we, the military?

The term never event makes about as much sense as friendly fire. Why don't we call these problems preventable events? It's so much clearer. But no, we're calling them never events, a term purposely designed to mislead. Now, admittedly Dr. Herdman didn't make up the term herself; it has been around for several years. But I think that if NANDA's core goal focuses on the proper use of terminology, it ought not fall prey to such noxious jargon as never events.

Shame on you, NANDA!

Common Confusables: Since & Because

This one may turn out to be a losing cause, but I'd like to fight to keep it "old school."

These two words are commonly misused, even by intelligent, articulate writers and speakers. Here's how to use them correctly:

Because is used when providing a reason for something. "I went to the store because we needed milk."

Since is used when dealing with time. "We've needed milk since this morning."

Unfortunately a great many people use since as a replacement for because. I'm not sure why, but that's the way it is, which leads me to think that eventually, if it hasn't happened yet, the two words will be considered officially synonymous. Bummer, man.

Common Confusables: Introduction

This post introduces a periodic look at words and phrases commonly confused, abused, and misused in our endlessly variable vernacular. I hope to present a Common Confusables post every week, and for your enjoyment I present the first one, Regime & Regimen.

Regime & Regimen

You've heard of several "fitness regimes," haven't you? Of course you have, they're all over the place. Same with "diet regimes." And even US Representatives have been heard asking—in this case NC Rep. Virginia Foxx asking of Roger Clemens about steroid use—"Mr. Clemens, maybe you'd like to talk about your regime and how hard you work?"

Okay, um, no!

Clemens doesn't have a regime, okay? Really, he doesn't. He may think he does, but he doesn't. What he has is a regimen. Huge difference. Huge.

A regimen is a regular course of action or treatment or a period of training or schooling, as in "My morning regimen includes a brisk walk." Or, "This program has an aggressive learning regimen."

A regime is a political system, as in "Saddam Hussein's regime was finally taken out of power." Or, "Our principal is a jerk. I think we should work toward a regime change. Wanna?"

So let's have no more of these fitness regimes, okay, Andy Green? Jennifer Scott? Women Fitness.com?

No more diet regimes, okay, Dr. Kiki Sidhwa? OK! Magazine? And Encyclopedia.Com?

Stop the madness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fear and Language Changes

Lots of factors drive changes in a language. New technologies is a key factor nowadays. Laziness, in a way, accounts for some changes too, contractions being a prime example. But sometimes fear does it too.

I've been noticing the last few years an overwhelming number of otherwise intelligent people who use "more" instead of adding "-er" to a word. For instance, I've heard "more clean" instead of cleaner, "more firm" instead of firmer, and even "more funny" instead of funnier. I've also seen these kinds of phrases in printed media, from ads to blogs to newspapers and magazines. And don't even get me started on the number of news anchors and other TV personalities who do the same thing when speaking off the cuff.

It seems that people have become so reluctant to take a crack at the correct -er word that they automatically shift to the more construct. Do these people not read? Did they attend lousy schools? Did they have teachers who didn't know the difference themselves? Or did they, as I think might be the case, struggle with learning the -er words and, on top of that, have teachers and parents who corrected them so often that they just gave up, deciding to use the more construct, regardless of what they think the correct one is?

I don't know, but I'm wondering whether this observation is an indication of a shift in our language toward the more construct in all cases. Hmmmm.

Patient-Centered Medical Homes

The Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an approach to providing comprehensive primary care for children, youth and adults. The PCMH is a health care setting that facilitates partnerships between individual patients, and their personal physicians, and when appropriate, the patient’s family. Don Balasa, President of the American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA), recently gave a speech on the role MAs will play in this fascinating and dynamic new approach in medical care.

To read the document Don presented, click PCMH_presentation_09.

Here is a fact sheet (PCMH_Fact_Sheet_Apr01) of PCMH from NCQA.

Check also the Joint Principles of the PCMH.