Nursing students take to Twitter to form journal club

An Australian university has swapped out traditional journal clubs for a Twitter-based group to improve students’ engagement with evidence-based practice.

A research team from the University of Technology Sydney, led by Dr Caleb Ferguson from the Graduate School of Health, evaluated the new approach.

The authors of the study said: “Given new flipped and blended approaches to teaching and learning, there is a need to rejuvenate how research is utilised and integrated within journal clubs to maximise engagement and translation of evidence.”

They added the online journal club phenomenon was not new and pointed to social media-based clubs currently used by nurses across the world, including Twitter-based discussion group WeNurses, which was launched in 2012 by registered nurse Teresa Chinn.

“Since [then], this global Twitter nursing community has grown exponentially, and continues to host weekly Twitterchats on different topics such as handover, infection prevention, communication and compassion,” the paper read.

Nursing Review sat down with Ferguson to discuss how the University's club was run and to learn more about the way nurses were using social media-based discussion groups.

Click here to learn more about the research, or follow the links below to find Dr Caleb Ferguson or UTS Health on Twitter.
twitter.com/calebferg
twitter.com/UTS_health