On Monday, September 25 the Healthcare Ethics and Law module commenced. This is a level 2 module undertaken by all fields of nursing; this equates to approximately 240 students. The first session asks students to consider ethical issues that they are aware of from practice and aims to get them to consider why these are ethical issues. This session is normally undertaken in small group tutorials that are field specific (adult, child or mental health nurses). Following on from my blended learning pilot with the child nursing students, in this module last year we decided to start this year with a Twitter chat for all the students. I admit to being a little apprehensive. I prepared a Twitter guide for the students that detailed how to join Twitter, terminology used and how to make sense of Twitter chats. It also incorporated guidance on staying safe using social media and the need to remain professional and follow the NMC Code of conduct. There were also suggestions on Twitter accounts to follow including the child nursing account and members of the module team. This was made available to the students the week before the module started (fresher's week). At the same time I wrote a blog post for the module blog talking about ethical issues in practice and listing the 4 questions we would consider in the chat. On the Friday, Saturday and Sunday I scheduled Tweets from @KirstenHuby and @UoLchildnursing. These reminded people about the chat, date, time and hashtag. We had chosen the #hceth as it is short and we couldn't find anyone else using it. Over the summer the module team but @HelenConvey the module lead in particular have been tweeting and using the # so that students will have resources to consider if they search for it. It is also hoped that as the module progresses students will share resources in this way. On the Monday morning I was concerned with some of the emails I was receiving that suggested students were unclear about what they needed to be doing which was further exacerbated with problems logging on to Minerva (VLE and portal). The chat was scheduled for 3PM and leading up to it I prepared key tweets to be posted 3 hours, 1 hour and 10 minutes before, tweets that reminded people to use the #, 4 tweets covering the questions and a tweet to say thank you at the end. By doing this I only had to think about responding to tweets as they came up which meant leading the chat was easier. The chat was a success. Students joined, some in groups (which we suggested may be an option) and they contributed. The discussion covered a range of topic areas and the students covered them in some depth. The interaction that occurred was excellent and students reflected on their own views, values and comments. Many students had never been on Twitter prior to this chat and some of my colleagues had never joined a Twitter chat before but people put their concerns to one side and joined in. This is the storify of the chat: storify.com/KirstenHuby/ethical-issues-in-practice Some of the students didn't like the use of Twitter in this way and that is to be expected. It is not something that everyone feels comfortable with, in the same way that some students are not comfortable in a classroom situation. As a module team we were looking for different ways for students to engage with the module in the hope that everyone would feel they had had a chance to share their ideas.I will take on board the feedback and consider how things could be done differently. So what have i learnt?
I have thanked my students and colleagues for taking part. Without their willingness to try this and put their fears, concerns and doubts to one side it would not have happened. I am grateful to them all for believing it was worth trying.
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AuthorKirsten Huby Lecturer Child Nursing interested in blended learning, educational technology and improving student engagement. Archives
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