Did 2014 see the mainstreaming of social media in the NHS?

Did 2014 see the mainstreaming of social media in the NHS?

by | Dec 14, 2014 | NHS stuff, social media | 3 comments

This week saw the publication of ‘on the brink of something special?’ the first report of its kind about the state of social media in the NHS. Earlier this year the Health Service Journal and Nursing Times presented their social media pioneers, and this new report comes courtesy of NHS Providers. Both aim to celebrate how social media is being utilised by people in the NHS as a force for change and transformation. There was a great Twitter chat on the subject of the most recent report on #nhssm this Wednesday which got me thinking… The very fact that three established institutions have chosen to publish these reports indicates that 2014 was the year that social media hit the mainstream in the NHS. We now have a plethora of social media guidelines and toolkits which is quite a journey from a few years ago when I recall healthcare professionals fearful of getting the sack for using social media. Sanctioning of social media is still highly variable in NHS Trusts but this appears to be shifting and I’ve no doubt these reports will accelerate it. However, both raise a couple of questions for me:  to what extent are could they be re-manufacturing hierarchy? to what extent could measurement create unintended consequences? I explain a bit more below… Manufacturing hierarchy Anyone working in the NHS will recognise that it’s institutions are imbued to varying degrees with hierarchies, command and control cultures, and established professional pecking orders. A transgressive affordance of online social networks is to interrupt those hierarchies. Blogs and microblogs have a low bar to entry and enable diverse groups...