Beginning graduate studies, while working full-time and balancing a busy family-life has been a daunting undertaking filled with a mixture of emotions. I’ve felt excitement, overwhelm, curiosity and fascination but overall, a sense of accomplishment in the work I’ve completed and the knowledge I’ve gained. MHST 601, Critical Foundations in Health Disciplines has started me on my journey to broadening my understanding of the Canadian health care system through various online platforms and peer learning. This course has opened up a new world of ideas and concepts, tools and platforms for curating content relative to my profession and research interests. I have become familiar with and comfortable using a range of digital tools, including reference management software, file-sharing systems, discussion forums, blogs and online presentation tools. I have had the opportunity to build a professional ePortfolio while receiving constructive feedback from peers, which has led to increased confidence and self-awareness. The following paper will highlight reflections from key learnings in MHST 601.
Content Curation
Curating content was an entirely new concept for me and has proven to be a valuable skill for this course and in my professional role. I chose to store my online resources using Zotero, which has simplified the research and information gathering process where collected materials and resources are available at my fingertips. I am more confident in gathering information from a wide variety of digital sources knowing that I have ease of access through Zotero. I also appreciate how citation information is laid out and notes can be added under tabs. Sharing Zotero resources can easily be done through a link which provides access to specific folders. Moving forward, I would like to clean up my folders and main library to ensure only relevant material is kept. I tend to save more resources than I need – likely due to the simplicity of the curation process. I will continue using Zotero for future course material and I plan to create a professional account to support content curation in the work setting.
Social Media
The jury is still out on my social media usage. As reflected in my initial post, I don’t use social media often, and still equate it with social networking and leisurely browsing through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for example. My view of social media as a broader definition, however, has shifted throughout this course and I am recognizing its value in the healthcare arena. It was helpful to consider the difference between social media and social networking and to look at these terms separately. Nations (2021), explains that media refers to the information you are sharing and could be in the form or an article, PDF, video or meme. Conversely, networking is about the audience you are connecting with and the relationship you have, whether it be friends, colleagues or peers. Social media has a role in healthcare and can be a powerful tool for sharing and conveying timely information in bite size pieces (Nations, 2021). An example of using social media for teaching is described in the article titled, Creative Clinical Teaching in the Health Professions. In a lesson on modeling, learners were asked to follow a prominent heath leader on Twitter to explore leadership style and skills. They were later asked to produce a paper on their leadership learning (Melrose et al., 2015).
Since beginning the course, I have personally begun “re-posting” relevant and informative content through LinkedIn related to therapeutic recreation, mental health and meaningful engagement. I’ve expanded my LinkedIn network and feel more dialed into local healthcare news and trends. I’ve been surprised with how much I’ve learned about the organization where I work and other similar healthcare facilities with respect to new initiatives, research, awards, innovations etc. Similarly, I have been intrigued by how much valuable health-related content is on YouTube in the form of short-clips, interviews, and vignettes, from all types of trusted sources. For future, I could be using Twitter and LinkedIn more actively to leverage my professional network. This continues to be an area for professional growth.
ePortfolio
My ePortfolio was developed using the platform Wix and has been a work in progress since the start of this course. Creating an ePortfolio was certainly overwhelming and pushed me past my comfort zone. Initially, I wasn’t convinced it would be worthwhile to create since it wasn’t something I had thought about prior to beginning MHST 601. I have gradually become more confident in building my ePortfolio, by trying various features and using different layouts. Like other classmates’ experiences, it has been a lot of trial and error to determine what works best for the type of content I’m posting. As I’ve moved through the course, I’ve discovered how best to store resources in my ePortfolio, which has been a go-to for referring to course material. I have learned how to create blog posts while easily editing and updating my site. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning from my peers through accessing their ePortfolio’s. Information is conveyed in a story-like manner, which can draw the reader in. I would consider using my ePortfolio together with my resume for future job searching and networking. I will continue to build on it to capture the highlights and key content of my upcoming courses in the MHS program.
References
Melrose, S., Park, C. & Perry, B. (2015). Creative clinical teaching in the health professions. https://clinicalteaching.pressbooks.com/front-matter/download-this-book/
Nations, D. (2021, January 26). What is Social Media? Lifewire. https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-media-explaining-the-big-trend-3486616
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