Wow it’s been hot lately ! Temperatures have reached 30c quite a few times in the last 10 days or so and I have found myself worrying: My first thoughts were for our children – Did they have sunscreen? A hat? Water bottles for school? Were they cool enough (in the cold sense not the…
Running towards danger
I have always been a cautious person, I like to think about things, look before I leap and often not leap at all! In fact at a recent family trip to one of those tree top adventure courses I was the one who opted out of the Tarzan swing and went the long, but safer,…
Inspire and be inspired
The last few weeks have flown by in a flurry of tweets and blogs it seems – ever since we first launched #70nursebloggers and #70midwifebloggers I have found myself attached to my computer … in a good way! The idea behind #70nursebloggers and #70midwiifebloggers is simple … inspire 70 nurses and 70 midwives to get…
Blogging, nursing and lots of bicycle analogies!
Whilst helping a nurse friend to get blogging this week I noticed that my first blog post on this website was 5 years ago … although I had an anonymous blog before this one .. this blog marked my decision to be me in social media. Back then I both tweeted and blogged under “Agency…
The positive side of leaving digital footprints
Being a nurse who advocates social media I often come across doubters – those people who say that nurses shouldn’t use social media on a professional basis as it will damage their reputation and that of their organisation, those who doubt that social media can do good and those who firmly believe that as nurses…
Evidence based tea
This blog has been rattling around in my head for a few weeks now, mainly because I wanted to find the right words to share my thinking. Sometimes I feel that we have to be careful with our words so that we don’t get misinterpreted .. I hope that I have chosen the right words…
Strategy AND Policy
I have been thinking a bit lately about social media and what we need to move social media forward in nursing. Even after 7 years of being a Tweeting and Blogging nurse I still hear stories of social media being shot down, of employers and universities emphatically urging nurses and student nurses to steer clear…
Not Mrs Smith!
When I was a student nurse someone told me a story that went something like this: One day Mrs Jones went into hospital for a minor operation. Before the operation the consultant came to the ward to see Mrs Jones and said “Hello Mrs Smith I am your consultant Mr Brown” Mrs Jones, quite rightly corrected Mr…
Being smart not unprofessional !
Two conversations caught my eye on Twitter last night, both seemed to get a lot of air time. The first conversation was sparked by this tweet from @DebsCooper131: The tweet got many responses and a good deal of interaction with lots of people tweeting about finding and loosing pens. It was a good fun sort…
Stuck on CPD
I have had a few conversations lately both on and offline around continuing professional development (CPD) in nursing, I guess its only natural as more and more of us are revalidating CPD is very much on our minds. However with austerity still very much the order of the day it worries me that many nurses…