Saturday, September 28, 2013

Midwifery: Isn’t there an App for that?

 

I am facilitating a workshop around midwives' use of social media, on Monday 30th September, at the Australian College of Midwives 2013 conference. My usual program is to talk about the reasons why midwives should engage with social media, and then focus on some of the most popular tools. But this time, I am going to take a slightly different tack.

Over the last year I have observed a shift in Australian midwives' requirements for knowledge, from what tools are best to use, to how we use the tools. I feel there has been a greater engagement with Facebook, and a growing interest in Twitter. But along with the greater use of social media has been an increase in stories of the misuse, both by midwives, and the people they engage with.

So, along with my usual talk about tools, I am going to use the draft Australian College of Midwives' social media guidelines as a framework to explore how to use social media professionally. In particular, I am going to devise some scenarios for the participants to discuss and explore solutions.

What situations have you found yourself in, or observed that would make a good scenario for discussion at a workshop about social media? 

Image: 'What’s on my iPhone'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15261067@N00/3969329831
Found on flickrcc.net

3 comments:

EHRTutor said...

I would love to hear some of the examples of how technology is misused.

So often we think about how great technology is (we run an academic EHR company so I spend most of my day talking about how to educate the medical community on how easy tech can be), but I find myself forgetting to consider the downside so often. Until, of course, it smacks in the face.... which it does occasionally.

Sarah Stewart said...

Hello EHRTutor
I think we hear so much about the down side of technology, especially social media, in health, that I like to emphasize how we can use it professional for engagement and collaboration.

Jane said...

Sarah, I think this is a great idea. My friends here in the United States are looking for a midwife and surprisingly there isn't that much technology to link up the two. Sure, doctors can recommend some, but clearly a mother looking for a midwife is looking for a specific type of person. An app would be a great idea.