Kimberley R. Barker provides an explanation of Twitter and tips for getting started. This presentation is geared specifically towards nurses.

1. Twitter as a Tool for
Nursing Education &
Clinical Practice
Kimberley R. Barker, MLIS

2. Presentation Overview
• Define Twitter
• Discuss how Twitter works
• Talk about Twitter user statistics & demographics
• List examples of relevant groups, associations, and
individuals who use Twitter
• Discuss specific ways that healthcare providers use
Twitter
• Learn how to get started with Twitter

3. “Twitter is not a technology. It's a conversation. And it's
happening with or without you.“ – Charlene Li

4. A social media/microblogging platform
What is Twitter?
• Established in 2006
• Text-based messages, up to 280 characters
• Can also include pictures and videos
• Hashtags #

5. How does Twitter work?
Elements of a good tweet or retweet
• Compelling “headline”
• Text and/or link to article, etc.
• Photo/video
• “value- add”
• Hashtags #

6. Let’s talk about hashtags
• Provide context
• Search functionality (act as metadata)
• Participate in conversations
• Collect tweets on a certain topic
*Don’t use more than two hashtags

7. The Healthcare Hashtag Project

8. The Healthcare Hashtag Project, cont’d.

9. General Information
Twitter Use/User Statistics
• Projected to reach 275 million active users/month in 2019
• 500 million tweets sent daily
• 326 million people use Twitter monthly
• 71% of users read news there
• #1 social media platform among government leaders

10. Twitter Use/User Statistics
Demographic Information
• 80% of users aren’t from the U.S.
• 24% of U.S. adults use Twitter
• 45% of U.S. citizens aged 18-25
use Twitter

11. Twitter Use/User Statistics
Patients & Caregivers
• 60% of consumers say they trust
doctors’ posts; 36% trust posts from Big
Pharma.
• 80% of those who engage on social
media are specifically looking for health
information; nearly half are searching for
information about a specific doctor or
health professional.

12. Twitter & Healthcare
Why do healthcare providers use Twitter?
• Raise awareness about disease, best practice, etc.
• Counter unscientific claims/disseminate evidence-
based information
• Build trusted relationships with patients
• Monitor public health (data mining)

13. Twitter & Healthcare
Why do healthcare providers use Twitter?
• Recruit for study participants
• Network
• Learn
• Teach

14. • Twitter chats
• “a public Twitter conversation around one unique hashtag. This
hashtag allows you to follow the discussion and participate in it.”
• Conferences
• Using the hashtag established for a conference (i.e.,
#ENA19) allows you to follow, participate in, and curate
conversations from the conference
How do healthcare providers engage on Twitter?

15. • Choose your Twitter handle
• Create the Page of Opportunity
• Write biography; use keywords for Twitter’s algorithm
• Choose a high-quality photo of yourself
• Choose a cover photo
Getting started with Twitter

16. Getting started with Twitter

17. Find accounts to follow
• Search for professional associations
• Search for names of people in your field
• Search for relevant terms
• Create lists to organize your interests
Getting started with Twitter

18. Next steps:
• Lurk!
• Retweet: value-adds are great, but not necessary
• Create original tweets; be sure to:
• Use hashtags
• Tag people by including their handle
• Remember that Twitter is only one part of the
social media biome
• Use it as a fishhook to pull readers to long-form
content
Getting started with Twitter

19. Please get in touch!
• @KR_Barker
• Kimberley@Virginia.edu
• www.KimberleyRBarker.com
Questions?

20. Resources
• Esther K. Choo, Megan L. Ranney, Teresa M. Chan, N. Seth Trueger, Amy E. Walsh, Ken Tegtmeyer, Shannon O. McNamara,
Ricky Y. Choi & Christopher L. Carroll (2015) Twitter as a tool for communication and knowledge exchange in academic
medicine: A guide for skeptics and novices,Medical Teacher, 37:5, 411-416, DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2014.993371
• Tunnecliff J, Weiner J, Gaida JE, Keating JL, Morgan P, Ilic D, Clearihan L, Davies D, Sadasivan S, Mohanty P, Ganesh S,
Reynolds J, Maloney S. Translating evidence to practice in the health professions: a randomized trial of Twitter vs
Facebook. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2017 Mar 1;24(2):403-408. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocw085. PubMed PMID: 27357833.
• Gallo, Toni. “Twitter Is Trending in Academic Medicine”; AAMC News. 2017 Feb 21 . Online:
https://news.aamc.org/medical-education/article/twitter-trending-academic-medicine/
• Smith, Aaron, Anderson, Monica. “Social Media Use in 2018»; Pew Research Center: Internet & Technology. 2018, Mar 1.
https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/
• Zhang, A. J., Albrecht, L., & Scott, S. D. (2018). Using Twitter for Data Collection With Health-Care Consumers: A Scoping
Review. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917750782

21. Resources
• Sachin R. Jhawar, MD, Vinay Prabhu, MD, [...], and Sabin B. Motwani, MD. Tweet for the cure: A snapshot of Twitter usage by
3 U.S. oncologic professional societies. Adv Radiol Onc, 2017 July-Sept 2 (3): 270-276
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5605321/
• “Top 5 Ways Social Media is Used by Healthcare Professionals”. https://elearning.scranton.edu/resource/business-
leadership/top-5-ways-social-media-is-used-by-healthcare-professionals
• Newberry, Christina. “How to Use Social Media in Healthcare: A Guide for Health Professionals”. 2019 Feb 4.
https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-health-care/
• Healthcare Hashtag Project: https://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/
• “Twitter as a Tool for Health Research: A Systematic Review”. m J Public Health. 2017 January; 107(1): e1–e8.
Published online 2017 January. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303512;

22. Resources
• Heath, Sara. “Public Health Pros Use Twitter for Patient Education Messages”;
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/public-health-pros-use-twitter-for-patient-education-messages
• Schneiderman, Phil. “You Are What You Tweet: Tracking Public Health Trends from Twitter Messages”.
https://releases.jhu.edu/2011/07/06/tracking-public-health-trends-from-twitter-messages/
• “30 Facts & Statistics On Social Media And Healthcare” https://getreferralmd.com/2017/01/30-facts-statistics-on-social-
media-and-healthcare/
• Fox, Susannah. “Health Topics”. https://www.pewinternet.org/2011/02/01/health-topics-3/
• Rapp, Adam. “Top 100 Healthcare-Related Twitter Accounts To Follow In 2017”. https://emedcert.com/blog/top-
healthcare-twitter-accounts-to-follow
• International Family Nursing Association. “Twitter Chats”. https://internationalfamilynursing.org/online-
community/twitter-chats/

23. Resources
• Statista. “Number of Twitter users worldwide from 2014 to 2020 (in millions)”.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/303681/twitter-users-worldwide/
• Cooper, Paige. “28 Twitter Statistics All Marketers Need to Know in 2019”.
https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-statistics/
• Catley, Jonathan. “These 15 Doctors are Dominating Twitter in 2018”.
https://www.mdconnectinc.com/medical-marketing-insights/doctors-dominating-twitter-2018
• Pershad Y, Hangge PT, Albadawi H, Oklu R. “Social Medicine: Twitter in Healthcare”.J Clin Med.
2018 May 28;7(6). pii: E121. doi: 10.3390/jcm7060121. Review.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29843360#
• Reese, Nick. Three ways healthcare brands use Twitter to improve health”.
https://business.twitter.com/en/blog/healthcare-brands-use-Twitter.html

24. Resources
• Nurses Association @ANANursingWorld
• Hendricks, Samantha. “Ten Nursing Accounts you should be following on Twitter”
https://www.medelita.com/blog/best-nurses-twitter-accounts/
• “Twitter Feeds Every Nurse Should Follow”
https://onlinenursepractitionerprograms.com/twitter-feeds/
• “6 Tips for Nurses Using Social Media”; American Nurses Association;
https://www.nursingworld.org/~4af5ec/globalassets/docs/ana/ethics/6_tips_for_nurses_us
ing_social_media_card_web.pdf