Technology and Social Media Training for School Nurses Blog Series Post #1 by Kim Webb

We are excited to kick-off a new series on our blog, specifically geared towards school nurses.

Welcome to the first “Tech Tuesday” post! These posts are going to be specifically for school nurses. Many of us now are in a role where we are servicing staff and students in-person, virtual, in isolation, and in quarantine all at the same time. My goal is to provide readers with evidence-based information and simple instructions so they will be able to start using different pieces of technology right now to connect with their school community or to be more efficient with their day to day practices.

​I’m going to dive right into one of the biggest areas for spreading information: Social Media. Back in 2017, Beth Mattey wrote an article, which is HERE  regarding why school nurses need to start using social media to get their message across to families, but still today many school nurses feel hesitant about trying it out.

Below is a chart from Pew Research that looks at the % of US adults who use at least 1 social media site over the years. It shows that as of February 2019, 72% of US adults are using at least 1 social media site. Below is another chart from Pew Research that shows that of those adults who use social media, they check it multiple times a day. These facts make social media a tool that a school nurse should use to put out information, especially in times like these where misinformation is being spread that can cause harm to a community.