The document summarizes a pilot program called WeLearn that used social media and social learning principles to provide continuing professional development for public health nurses. The 6-week pilot had 62 participants and aimed to develop skills in using social media for work, sharing work, and celebrating work. Participants completed modules on Twitter, blogs, and social media tools. Evaluation found enhanced knowledge, applications of learning to practice, and potential for WeLearn to support revalidation through social media-based learning networks. Areas for improvement included reducing daily task times and increasing flexibility. The pilot demonstrated how social media can facilitate professional development and connections beyond the pilot participants.

1. WeLearn
A new way to learn and
professionally develop through
social media
Lifelong learning into practice
Compiled by Teresa Chinn MBE & Nick Chinn

2. What WeLearn–t !
What participants learnt along the way

3. What WeLearn –t !
What participants thought of the pilot

4. Background
The WeLearn pilot was undertaken by:
Public Health England & WeCommunities
It explored a new way of learning and professional development
using social media.

5. The Remit
To establish and deliver a programme to support the CPD of PH nurses which links to national priorities and
key health issues affecting children 0-19
The programme will support public health nurses – including health visitors and school nurses in terms of
local delivery, identifying need and improving outcomes;
The programme will support re-validation and professional development and mobilization of the workforce
through a learning network
The programme will provide innovation approaches which link into the current ways of working and
promote technological advances

6. Aims
To develop and launch an innovative approach to CPD programme to support practitioners to meet
local needs and their mandatory requirements
To encourage the use of more innovative approaches to CPD and revalidation
To enhance knowledge and skills through the programme which is linked to re-validation;
To evaluate the programme and to produce a comprehensive report that presents an appraisal of
the intelligence gathered and makes helpful recommendations for the wider application of the
programme

7. How the aims were met:
To develop and launch an innovative approach to CPD programme to support practitioners to meet
local needs and their mandatory requirements – The programme was the first of it’s kind, using
social media principles and social media to develop a social learning approach. This supported
practitioners to meet revalidation requirements and to put learning into practice locally.
To encourage the use of more innovative approaches to CPD and revalidation - The programme was
delivered in the open space that is social media and had a wide reach amoung the social media
community. Participants were exposed to many different types of social media that can help with
revalidation and many stated that they would share this wider with colleagues.
To enhance knowledge and skills through the programme which is linked to re-validation – The pre
and post programme questions clearly show that knowledge and skills were enhanced, the
programme was linked to revalidation throughout and participants reflected on learning.
To evaluate the programme and to produce a comprehensive report that presents an appraisal of
the intelligence gathered and makes helpful recommendations for the wider application of the
programme – please see evaluation that follows

8. Pilot learning aims
To give participants the skills and confidence they need to:
Use social media to inform their work
Use social media as part of their work
Use social media to share and celebrate their work
Running alongside this was content from Public Health England that aimed to show participants how
innovative ways of learning and developing can be used for CPD and Revalidation and how they can bring
that learning into practice (using PHE content and offerings).

9. Scoping
Prior to the development of the pilot ideas were scoped out via
a focus group of school nurses. Some of the comments made
were:
Some of the positive comments helped with the development by confirming that the pilot was headed in the right
direction :
“Great to have reminders as when you don’t do it for a while you can lose confidence”
Whilst the negative comments ensured that the focus remained centered on the needs of participants:
“I think one of the most difficult issues for me is the need for constant monitoring!”

10. Some more comments made:
Some comments made really shaped the final design of WeLearn, for example the comments made around flexibility:
“I like the shorter directed tasks as feel it supports that really getting to grips with how to use social media maybe a
little bit of wider flexibility to complete the task over a wider time”
“Could task length be more determined by the person? If they are interested they might get carried away and want to
find out more?”
“Perhaps if they miss a twitter chat they at least provide reflection that they have read the chat archive etc. and
demonstrated learning. Life will inevitably get in the way”
These comments directly led to more flexibility being built into the pilot so that participants had the option catch up or
delve deeper into topics.

11. Development
A bespoke platform was developed, the key features of which
were:
• An easy to use, intuitive platform (driven by
scoping feedback)
• Integrated into social media
• Social media login
• Usable across multiple device platforms
• Replicable to support sharing of benefits

12. The platform
The WeLearn platform was kept
simple and easy to use with a
social media login.

13. How social media
was integrated:
On completing of some modules and
tasks direct messages were sent to
congratulate or encourage participants

14. How social media was integrated:
Running alongside the WeLearn platform was a Twitter hashtag - #WeLearnSoMe – (SoMe being
shorthand for social media) The hashtag provided peer to peer support and enabled participants to
share and discuss things that they had learnt.

15. How social media was integrated:
The content of the pilot was specifically designed to be friendly and sociable, adhering to social
media principles of short, engaging and snappy learning. The content exposed participants to lots of
different social media and included:
• Twitter
• Tweetchats
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Powtoons
• Prezi
• Steller Story
• Blogs
• YouTube

16. How social media principles were applied:
The pilot was divided into 6 modules:
• Understanding the basics of Twitter– covering the why and how of Twitter
• Applying the basics – including the first Tweetchat of the pilot
• Building confidence – exploring blogs and sharing learning
• Using your confidence – the second Tweetchat and using YouTube videos
• Stretching your wings – covering infographics and starting to think about what next
• Flying – the third Tweetchat and tips on how to stay connected
•
Each module was then split into Days and each Day was then split into Steps. The tasks for each
Day were designed to take about 10 – 15 minutes to complete. There was a space at the end of
each Step for participants to add thoughts, notes or reflective comments.
We also ensured that the pilot adhered to the following principles:
• Short periods each day
• Lots of discussion
• Lots of sharing
• Being able to celebrate
• Peer support

17. Getting going
The pilot module
The pilot ran from 1st March to 24th March and was entirely online and used social media to share
information and for peer support. The pilot module was:
“Using Social Media for Revalidation”

18. Pilot participants
There was a blog on the PHE website:
And a blog with information and resources on the
WeCommunities Website :
We also attended 4 regional PHE events to recruit
participants and advertised through social media
channels. Some of the people in the focus group also
did presentations about the pilot to their colleagues
and encouraged them to join. Applications were
made via email.
How we recruited participants:

19. Who we
recruited:
We recruited mostly
school nurses, though we
did not discourage health
visitors

20. Virtual welcome
Participants were sent a virtual welcome pack:
The welcome pack was an email that contained an welcome infographic and a link to a
video (created for the pilot) that provided instruction on how to sign up to Twitter

21. Participants were sent a virtual welcome pack:
Not everyone opened the virtual welcome pack email but by using a automated process reminders
and chase emails increased uptake:
78 of the 95 applicants opened their Welcome Pack
71 opened their Login Emails
(Many used NHS email addresses that “spammed” the communication, would got round and we
were contacted by those that hadn’t got an invite and alternative emails were used)
However 61 did and proceeded to the next stage of the pilot – See points for future

22. The first days
The day before the pilot
started:
An email was sent out giving
participants a unique code, which
together with their Twitter details they
used to sign into WeLearn:

23. Help to sign in:
Some participants needed some extra
support with logging in. This was
provided via email and phone:

24. Help to sign in:
Most of the login problems were due to
the confidence of the participants.
There was one issue with the format
not working on an iPad mini. This was
resolved within an hour with a tech
update.
Interestingly after the first day there
were no further calls for telephone
assistance.

25. Structure
Structure of the pilot:
Participants were asked pre and post course
questions as part of the evaluation process, these
were largely based on the pilot objectives.
(These same questions were repeated at the end for
instant course evaluation)

26. Structure of the pilot:
The Pilot was broken down into small chunks of 10 –
15 minutes per day.
And each day was broken down into short steps with
space for reflective comments

27. The content of the pilot:
The content of the pilot was specifically designed to
be friendly and sociable, adhering to social media
principles

28. The content of the pilot:
The pilot included 3 #WeScNs Tweetchats
aligned to PHE topics

29. The content of the pilot:
The content of the pilot included lots of PHE content

30. Badges:
At the end of each module participants gained a badge which they were
encouraged to tweet.

31. Certificate:
At the end of the pilot participants gained
a certificate

32. #WeLearnSoMe
Structure of the pilot
Help and ongoing support was provided by the
#WeLearnSoMe hashtag. These tweets were received
when the WeLearn website went down due to routine
maintenance – however this was dealt with swiftly
and both participants were able to continue.

33. Structure of the pilot
There was also evidence of peer support and
discussion via the hashtag

34. Structure of the pilot
And there was opportunity for celebration and
encouragement using the hashtag

35. Direct Messages
Support &
Encouragement via
DM
Support and encouragement was also
provided via DM on Twitter

36. Automatic verification
Verified tasks
Some tasks could be automatically
verified – providing extra support and
encouragement

37. Link with MyWe
MyWe
Participants were encouraged to use an existing platform “MyWe” to reflect on learning from the Tweetchats for
revalidation purposes.

38. The data
62 participants started the course and 40 completed the course. We do not know why participants dropped out
along the way but 65% of those who started finished the course. Typically online courses have a 40% - 80% drop
out rate (Bawa 2016) – Welearn drop out was 35% so well below a “typical rate”.
Participant data

39. Reflective questions data
The pre and post evaluation questions should a marked improvement across the board in the understanding
and value of use of social media for CPD:

40. Hashtag data
One of the most interesting aspects of the data was the Twitter hashtag statistics. 245 people used the hashtag
over the period of the pilot, which is a much greater number than the participants. This gave a total reach (the
potential number of people who saw these tweets) of 5, 596,375 which means that the reach of the information
shared was far beyond the pilot participants. It also meant that this laid the foundation of networks of learning for
participants.
View live #WeLearnSoMe data HERE

41. Chat stats
Tweetchat 1: School nurses contribution to
health & Wellbeing
Tweetchat 2: The impact of homelessness
on children & young people
Tweetchat 3: Childhood obesity & all our
health
(This showed a dramatic increase in the WeSchoolNurses typical chat participation)

42. Interaction wheel
Participants were seen to be laying the
foundations of a community of practice,
the benefits of which can be long last and
far reaching. The Interaction Wheel in
Figure x shows the interactions and
connections made via Tweets throughout
the pilot, the thicker the connection the
more Tweets that were exchanged
between participants:
View live Interaction Wheel http://welearn.wecommunities.org/PublicHealthEngland/admin

43. MyWe
MyWe was seen to be used
for reflection for
revalidation following
discussions.
Early chats were given more
emphasis to combine MyWe
with attending the chats.
This shows that participants
actively used social media
for revalidation purposes.
33
29
9

44. Feedback
Tweets
Many people shared their thoughts and
feedback via Tweets

45. Tweets
All of the comments received were positive.

46. Tweets
Some tweets encouraged and thanked others

47. Course feedback
Participants were encouraged to leave feedback on the WeLearn evaluation page

48. Course
feedback
Again, this feedback was all
positive.

49. Course feedback
A few participants expressed how Welearn how helped them

50. Course feedback
Some participants mentioned the support given to sign up:

51. Course feedback
The word cloud below summarises all of the course feedback. (Please see Appendix 1 to read further highlights)

52. Other feedback
Some people shared feedback via email

53. Learning into practice
Encouraging participants
One of the important aspects of the pilot was not only to show learning and to create an innovative way to learn in
order to support revalidation but also to make to make the link to practice and improve outcomes. This was
encouraged throughout the pilot and can be evidenced as taking place through some of the tweets shared during the
pilot.

54. Evidence of learning
into practice
Participants shared how they would use
information learned in practice via tweets:

55. Evidence of learning into
practice
One participant Tweeted about how she had shared an
infographic about the Healthy Child Programme:
And another shared how she was sharing learner with her
wider team:

56. Evidence of
learning into
practice
During the second Tweetchat on
“The impact of homelessness on
children and young people” one
participant shared via a Tweet
that what she had learnt would
improve the care she was giving:
In the same discussion a different
participant stated how she was
meeting with commissioners the
next day and would be discussing
some of the key themes of the
Tweetchat. The next day she
shared her progress by tweeting:

57. Evidence of
learning into
practice
Participants kept sharing after
the pilot had finished:
This small snapshot of tweets shows how participants actively used
what they were learning and used it to inform and improve practice,
further details can be found in Appendix 2

58. Our learning
• Reduce daily task time – there were some comments that the task times were longer than expected, these
were all followed by comments that the participant had started from scratch, however we should reduce the tasks
to reflect this
• Reflections – consider reducing the number of reflections to perhaps each day and not at the end of each step
• Content –any future projects should continue to embrace social media’s vibrant content style
• Window to modules too small – the windows that opened to reveal the daily tasks were too small, we will need
to revisit this so that it is more suited to accommodating the vibrant content (no one commented on this but we
felt that it would work better)
• Discrepancy between who registered and who actually took part – Why was that? Did they get the emails ?
Problem with mail out? Is more notice needed? We also need to follow up those who did not continue to ask why?
• First day – Lots of support was needed due to the skills of some participants, this will need to be factored in to
any future projects
• Problem with iPad mini – there were problems with viewing the platform on the iPad mini, however this was
resolved within a day of starting
• Flexibility – Keep the flexibility as this was very important to some participants
• Not immediately obvious what to do at the end – the end point was not immediately obvious, this needs a little
work so that its really clear where the certificate is and how to celebrate
• Make content more accessible afterwards – we felt that a content library at the end would be useful for
participants to revisit the bits they needed to
• Email sign up – Make the sign up process slicker so that we get a greater uptake
• MyWe – more support is needed for longer for MyWe, the reflection on chats decreased as support decreased so
perhaps people needed talking through it a few more times before it becomes embedded practice

59. The future
Potential of WeLearn
Although the pilot focussed on learning and development around using social media for CPD and revalidation
though very interesting was irrelevant; what was important was the concept of using social media to learn and
develop.
The results and feedback from the pilot are encouraging and show that not only did participants benefit from
the learning but they also used it for revalidation and applied the learning to their practice.
One of the huge benefits of social media is that discussion, resources and ideas are shared and are far
reaching. The WeLearn pilot showed that this was indeed the case in regard to social learning. The Twitter
statistics show that participants developed a community of practice in addition to this they also interacted
with the wider community.

60. The social media – revalidation relationship
WeLearn has the potential to be based on any topic from leadership to childhood obesity and everything else
in-between, making it an excellent tool for revalidation.
The only barrier being that those who are social media novices would have to primarily complete a social
media based WeLearn, similar to the pilot to first get to grips with using social media for professional
development.
The platform and principles and simple and easy to use but most importantly instead of being a very static on
dimensional environment of reading and answering questions – as traditional e-learning can be – the concept
of social learning gives participants short, snappy, engaging and peer supported learning.
Social media is no longer a social pastime, it’s evolving into a professional tool that can help nurses to develop,
learn, connect, share and most importantly …..revalidate. Social media can positively impact nursing practice
and give nurses the support and networks they need for lifelong learning. Social media is revolutionising the
way we learn in nursing and nurses are undoubtedly at the forefront of this revolution.

61. What next?
Write up pilot – included in an article for Journal of Family
Health and then use this as a basis for a peer reviewed piece
Keep it social media – write a blog to follow up and add a “class
of WeLearn 17” recognition for the pioneers who participated
Make changes to the system
Develop a “WeLearn Blueprint” that any subject can slot into

62. Appendix 1
Highlights of WeLearn feedback
I found it so helpful being directed slowly through activities, that allowed me to understand ways of attaching
information to tweets. I realised that it was an invaluable source of information, that can signpost you to
different areas to explore practice.
I have also been able to increase my network of professionals who I can engage with and share good practice
with.
I have gained new skills and have gone a way with a new energy and feeling motivated to move forward.
The visuals we really pleasing to look at loved all the posters which I have saved to use at work and to as a
reminder.
I can't fault any of the content of the learning package. It was easy to follow, great instructions. The tweet
chats were a great way of "learning on the job" as well. Have really enjoyed it and learnt so much that I will
keep using and hopefully share with other colleagues.
This has been a very helpful, beneficial experience, both for me as a person and also as a health professional.
Making contact with others in the School Nursing world at the click of a screen allows you to see what others
are thinking, learning, doing. This ability/skill to share means that everyone is a winner. To inform our practice
and improve standards I believe it is the future.

63. The course was well presented and easy to follow with lots of opportunities to interact with many
different platforms of social media. I did the course in my own time and found the Tweetchats
time consuming as I felt to participate I needed to preread (the links provided were great)
I particularly liked the interaction during the steps to use what we learned and tweet about it,
there and then. Reinforces learning. It really does help getting responses on the Twitter feed and
personal DM from WeSchoolNurses. (I’m not sure who runs that but they are onto it!!)
Linking all this to our CPD and revalidation is very helpful.
I found the course very easy to follow and encouraging. I was so nervous about using social media
it was an amazing way of getting me started. I would never have done it on my own. I liked the
format and encouragement to do things step by step.
I will definitely continue to use and hope to develop what I’ve learned further by using the
knowledge to incorporate social media engagement to access young people for school nursing
health promotion.

64. Appendix 2
Highlights of participants learning reflections from MyWe
Have already sent assessment tool from other area to team leads to influence what we use locally. Will place
Mental Health as a question on questionnaire for next term. Look into any other training I can access to
become more confident.
Have organised a talk for all the team on mindfulness.
I can discuss this with my team and with my team leader and look at ways we can change our practice for the
best ways to help families and children.
Make contact with the homeless team. Discuss refugee children with my mentor to question what is offered in
the way of health assessments.
I have already researched available emergency accommodation in my practice area and will undertake further
research to establish identified contacts such as Shelter, housing accommodation liaison and experts and
compile a file for colleagues to utilize.
I intend to find out more about the services that are available in my area so that I can effectively support CYP
and families. I will be following up on links that were shared as part of the tweet chat.
I have been doing some work with the hostel and the school nursing service line. I have been trying to make it
mandatory for school nurses to see children of school age that go in to a hostel as they are likely to have been
subjected to trauma, which may result in behavioural or mental health problems, and a risk of reduced equity.
My aim is to change policy and procedure to encompass this and raise awareness of homelessness in youths
and the services that can support with this.

65. I will be more aware of identifying young people with mental health issues and how their needs can be
managed.
I will introduce the subject of homeless YP within the team to have a discussion about what everyone is already
doing. - I will investigate our local homeless charities to build relationships and start some partnership
working - I will look to advertising chat health In venues other than schools (Macdonalds)
It has encouraged me to make contact with the local refuge when I return to placement and see if the school
nursing service can offer any support to families with school aged children.
I will investigate services locally to support homeless CYP and establish the resources that are available. We can
then link them in to offer public health support.
I intend to implement an emotional wellbeing assessment tool for young people in my practice.
I will be having a discussion with my SCPHN student tomorrow and highlighting to her the importance of
contacting some homeless charities as part of her alternative practice. I also think at a strategic level that this is
a discussion that I need to have with my managers about the changing role of school nurses and the
commissioning from Public Health.

66. My awareness of the impact of homelessness on children and their families has grown but I would like to link
with local support services to find out more. I am going to investigate the pathways for homeless children in
Bristol.
I have already had a discussion with the rest of my school team re this ongoing issue
It has helped to highlight some gaps within my local knowledge so I am now able to do a bit of research to help
with this.
I want to change my own practice. When I qualify I want to be more visible in schools. I want to participate in
school assembly, have school drop ins, access the mental health of the young people and provide target work
relevant to demand, consider health promotion boards in school. Promote chat health and access school health
through media
I will be thinking about early intervention more and liaising with my high school about the possibility of setting
up groups to build resilience and look at young peoples emotional health needs. I can also look at how this can
also be used in primary schools in my area.
I want to do more displays in schools to highlight our role. I want to continue to work closely with the
prevention service to apply that early help I want to have some extra support and or training in emotional
health and wellbeing.

67. I will discuss with my manager the possibility of joint working with mental health team and one of my
secondary schools to see if we can run some anxiety sessions in school. We get a high number of referrals
around anxiety. I will continue to promote the school nursing service by liaising with the schools in my area,
offering assemblies and encouraging young people to come to drop.
I am hoping to complete this pilot education course based on Twitter learning in view of helping me explore
other ways of learning and education within the trust. Our county is massive and that alone provides a barrier
to face to face learning. As my role as community practice educator this will help me to develop better teaching
packages, that are more fun, exciting and take on board the technology that the young people we work with
are using. It will also help develop teaching/education that we use with them, I am thinking sex education etc.