Development of My ePortfolio: Initial Stages

Professional Development Plan

As a novice to social media use in my professional realm, I sought guidance from my professional bodies to aid in the development of my ePortfolio to ensure my correspondence in virtual space, i.e. on Twitter and Blog posts, is both professional and respectful. It is important for healthcare professionals to uphold a professional and appropriate social media presence online. To help organize and share the abundance of videos, news, and professional journal resources required to delve into the depths of health care in Canada, I trailed a few curation sites which I will discuss in this post.

My Professional Social Media Plan

Currently in my professional role, I am not required to have an online presence, however future roles may require I participate in online information sharing and correspond with the public in virtual platforms, and therefore it is key to keep a professional focus when engaging with friends and family in social media platforms. In my personal life, I feel that it is important to be respectful and tolerant of all individuals in virtual space and to only post information that is accurate from reputable sources. It is important for public sector workers to develop an incognito profile name so that one can maintain privacy on personal social media platforms.

To guide my engagement in virtual spaces and social media correspondence, I plan to follow the College of Nurses of Ontario, who have published some resources and guidelines to help nurses in Ontario to maintain an appropriate image on social platforms, such as a webinar Social Media: Reflect Before You Post, and standards, Social Media Use: Common Expectations for Nurses.

My Professional Curation Plan

As I build my professional ePortfolio, I now require a more efficient system to curate information and sources for easy access and efficient navigation in virtual space when sharing knowledge and resources professionally. To assist my digital literacy and development of my skills in curating accessible digital information content, I explored a few content curation tools such as Pocket and Scoop.it.

I have found these tools to be very useful in helping me collect, organize, access websites, and share documents that I frequently use professionally and academically. I found Pocket to be more user friendly and simplistic to use; to access my Pocket click here. I plan to expand more files on my professional development such as APA formatting tools and guidelines, and websites to professional organizations where I can assess practice and assessment tools.

Resources

College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) (2018). Social Media: Reflect Before You Post.

International Nurse Regulators Collaborative (INRC), (2016). Social Media Use: Common Expectations for Nurses.