Reflection: Curation, Social Media, & Professionalism
- crockaltenhof1
- Nov 27, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 5, 2023
Introduction
The Critical Foundations in Health Disciplines course was very engaging. It entailed a critical exploration of the definitions of health and an analysis of factors that can influence health and prevent illness within the context of the Canadian healthcare system. Throughout the course, students were challenged to consider professionalism, analyze their social media presence, curate resources, create a professional digital identity in the form of an e-portfolio, and post blogs. The following text incorporates my thoughts and feelings on what I learned about content curation, and social media presence and professionalism.
Content Curation
I had only curated my resources in a computer system or filing cabinet. I am quite organized so I thought content curation would be redundant and double my workload. However, I have realized I am not as organized as a reference manager system: I do not save most of the articles I read; I pin, bookmark, and create desktop shortcuts for websites. Some files are difficult to locate when the topic is multiple subjects and could be found in several locations. I have too many methods for saving items.
After some research, I chose Zotero as the system to use. As a new user, I did not find it as user-friendly as some applications, but I eventually became familiar with it. Still, it is unclear how to correctly categorize some items when they could fall under multiple categories (for example, report, document, or webpage). Here are some other faults I noticed:
the downloaded application for the computer is different than the online version. This is not helpful, especially when I did not realize there were two versions on my computer;
if Zotero or your computer is restarted, Zotero does not maintain your citation style preference and reverts to a non-American Psychological Association (APA) format;
capitals in titles do not convert to lower case. APA requires titles of items to be referenced in lower case. It is time consuming to do this manually but at least it only needs to be done once;
“.pdf” files, often do not collect data properly and need to be created manually. I can only guess that there is no metadata associated with those files.
Zotero is American based so referencing Canadian Criminal Code and law must be done manually.
Regardless, I have learned that a reference management system is considerably better than computer files. Some elements can be saved more easily such as audio items. Items can be indexed better and are more accessible. I organized mine by subject matter because my audience, besides potential employers, will be my team of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) managers, and provincial and national SANEs. The key word feature is also helpful to increase search results. Zotero will also save me time in school for recalling relevant articles for future papers. Overall, I am very thankful that I was introduced to data management systems.
Social Media and Online Presence
Professionals are in a position of trust and should be aware that their online presence needs to demonstrate this, so it is important to post in a conservative manner. For example, if some teachers posted videos of themselves doing inappropriate things, the public trust of teachers as a whole would diminish. Likewise, news stories of healthcare providers misusing or mis-prescribing drugs erode the trust of the entire profession.
This course made me reconsider my use of social media, because of this trust. Facebook is the social media I use the most. It is how I reconnect and stay in touch with friends and family. My privacy settings were for friends only except a few public service posts. While I had always been careful, some albums with cartoons and memes were public. I have changed these settings as I do not want to portray myself as a jokester or offend anyone.
I use Twitter and LinkedIn for more professional and work-related interests, getting community and health industry news, but I do not post much. I have realized that social media may not be fully reflective of yourself, and choosing to portray only one side can be misleading. Funny or party pictures can make you look unprofessional. Alternatively, some people portray that they have a grand life when they are actually struggling.
During the Covid-19 pandemic there was a plethora of misinformation causing me to avoid social media more than before. However, since this course, I have reconsidered this, and think that to combat harmful information, I should be on social media more often, posting quality, scientific, evidence-based material.
For the course, we also had to develop an e-portfolio. I had not thought of this as social media before, but like other social media, it presents personal information, showcases talents, and allows for communication with others. Not being familiar with any of the recommended sites, I felt overwhelmed initially. However, applications like Wix, which have pre-built pages, make it easy to create websites, and it was not long before I found myself greatly enjoying the creativity it allowed. I remain ambivalent about the “About Me” section, which contains personal information that others might not choose to include. They are portions of my life that shaped my health-related values and beliefs. While I have not received negative feedback about it, I will continue to ponder this until I am certain. I look forward to adding more to my portfolio as I progress though my master’s program.
Conclusion
I have learned a lot in my Critical Foundations course. I have become more mindful and attentive to my digital identity, reducing what is available to the public in some ways and increasing my visibility by posting more quality information. Although I have no desire to become a “social influencer”, throughout this course I have grown my digital footprint by developing an e-portfolio for professional purposes. While collaboration and information sharing are common in my work, having my resources curated and indexed in a reference management system will prove to be very helpful when colleagues, internal and external to my organization, are looking for information.
References
Rock-Altenhof, C. (2023). Reference list. Zotero.
Rock-Altenhof, C. (2023). Rock-Altenhof e-portfolio. https://carolrockaltenhof.ca
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