Tag Archives: mobile health

Digital Professionalism📱vs The Dinosaurs 🦕

6 Replies

In a famous reddit exchange from about 7 years ago, this question was asked:

If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared today, what would be the most difficult thing to explain to them about life today? 

Nuseramed replied: 

I possess a device, in my pocket, that is capable of accessing the entirety of information known to man. 

I use it to look at pictures of cats and get in arguments with strangers.

The response went viral.

The iPhone revolutionised how we use mobile phones. Although there were internet-connected phones years before the iPhone came along, it wasn’t until the iPhone was released (2007 in the US + Europe, 2008 in Australasia) that it started to become normal to access the internet while on the run, not just at a desk. Furthermore, the explosion of apps that followed the iPhone release made it clear that making phone calls and sending text messages were the least fun things you could do with a mobile phone. 

Which brings me to the point of this post. Smartphones don’t have to be used for looking at cat videos and getting into arguments with strangers. Smartphones can be a terrific asset to nursing work, but there’s sometimes a weird reluctance from nursing’s leaders to encourage or even permit their use. This reluctance was noted in a recent Journal of Advanced Nursing editorial:

I could wave my hands around and talk about why nurses should embrace, not avoid, using smartphones. It might be a bit abstract though.

We could ask more people to google “mHealth” so they can see their there’s a whole field of study about using smartphones in health care.

Instead, let’s just list a dozen real-life examples of how clinicians use smartphones at work:

  1.  

Google translate does not replace using an interpreter, but for occasional words or phrases it’s terrific, especially if you use the Voice or Conversation functions. 

Overcoming communication barriers often relies on creative solutions. If you can break the ice/engage the person using content you can access on your phone you absolutely would, wouldn’t you? 

In Australia the medication bible is MIMS. Having MIMS on your phone = being able to check on medication info quickly and easily wherever you are. There’s a free 7 day trial, then they’ll charge you $ome monie$ (I’m assuming/hoping it’s tax deductible for nurses, doctors and pharmacists). 

Mindfulness/stress-management can be much easier if there’s a framework and tools to guide you. The free and credible SmilingMind app does just that. 

Google maps is great for this sort of thing.

Calculating BMIs is a tad tricky with pen and paper. The Mediquations app does it for you. 

  1.  

Screening tools like the Edinburgh PND Scale don’t have to be paper-based. This one is on the Mediquations app. It calculates the score automagically, and the whole thing can be emailed to cut and paste into the electronic medical record, so the woman can track her changes/progress, and/or shared with others on the clinical team. 

In the last couple of years there has been a push towards making sure that people who experience suicidal thoughts have a safety plan. Some organisations have created forms for this sort of thing. That might be OK for the organisation, but how handy is it for the person? For most individuals it would be MUCH more handy having a shareable safety plan on your mobile phone. If you haven’t done so already, sus-out BeyondNow.

  1.  

I used to struggle with CPD documentation. With an app you can do it in real time, and readily access it PRN. I used to use the C4N app, but it was a bit clunky. The free Ausmed one is better. There are probably other CPD evidence-based record apps. Wouldn’t it be nice if ANMF and/or AHPRA provided their fee-payers with a free, easy-to-use, and fit-for-purpose CPD app? 

A previous blog post called “Phatic Chat: embiggening small talk” introduced this example of how Google maps can help bridge cultural and language barriers by demonstrating interest, openness and respect. 

  1.  

I must have been away the day they told us about Klienfelter’s syndrome in nursing school. This app makes me sound much smarter than I really am. 

  1.  

Accessing info online (eg https://www.nmsupport.org.au) is a legitimate way for nurses to improve the safety of their practice and to support each other. Why on earth would nursing’s leaders want to restrict ready information access? 

Score

That’s the end of the list of a dozen real-life examples of how clinicians use their smartphone at work. Here’s the score: 

Digital Professionalism📱= 12
The Dinosaurs 🦕 = 0

Snippily Sarcastic Suggestion

Does your nurse manager, nurse educator, university lecturer or clinical facilitator need to know about this stuff? 

Here 👉 [click link to open] 👈 is a PDF version of this blog post that you can print and mail or fax to them. After all, we wouldn’t want to risk using a modern digital technology like email, would we? 🙄 

End

Do you have other examples of Digital Professionalism? Please feel free to add them in the comments section below. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Paul McNamara, 2 November 2019

Short URL: meta4RN.com/mHealth

APA citation:  McNamara, P. (2019, November 2). Digital Professionalism📱vs The Dinosaurs 🦕 [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://meta4RN.com/mHealth

The 12 tweets used above are collated here: wakelet.com/@metaRN

References 

O’Connor, S. , Chu, C. H., Thilo, F. , Lee, J. J., Mather, C. and Topaz, M. (2019), Professionalism in a digital and mobile world: A way forward for nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing. doi:10.1111/jan.14224

Rolls, K., Massey, D. & Elliott, R. (2019). Social media for researchers – beyond cat videos, over sharing, and narcissism. Australian Critical Care, Volume 32, Issue 5, 351 – 352 doi:10.1016/j.aucc.2019.07.004

Addit 12 July 2020

Many thanks to Dr Siobhan O’Connor et al for acknowledging this blog post (dinosaur emoji and all) in their recently published paper, namely:

O’Connor, S., Daly, C., MacArthur, J., Borglinde, G. & Booth, R. (2020) Podcasting in nursing and midwifery education: An integrative review. Nurse Education in Practice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102827

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License