They say that
life is full of surprises. That is the understatement of the moment, especially
as it relates to the integration of social media within our career trajectories.
It is
difficult to imagine where I would be in a professional capacity in the absence
of social media.
My journey in
the world of social media began over four years ago, where I facilitated the
development of an educational blog known as
Emergency Medicine PharmD, which is
aimed at defining the role of the emergency medicine pharmacist. My involvement in the blog has allowed me
to unite several passions of mine in one vehicle: research and lifelong
learning; writing in both scientific terms and prose in the form of
storytelling; and emergency medicine pharmacy.
At around the same time, I created
a
professional Twitter account
as a means of disseminating newly published entries from the blog to those who
followed me in addition to sharing articles and interesting posts related to
the practice of emergency medicine pharmacy.
In serving as
associate editor of the blog, having authored over 75 educational entries since
its inception, and through my active engagement on Twitter, my contributions
within the world of social media has propelled my professional career as an
emergency medicine pharmacist in ways that I never thought could ever be remotely
possible. I realized early on that social media can be
leveraged for research purposes and to date, I have had formal publication of three research
papers in the medical literature related to social media and pharmacy. With
this, I have also been able to interact with several other individuals within the
international community of emergency medicine clinicians and collaborate on
blog posts and podcasts on various topics as well as participate in research
studies and other such activities. Last year, I joined a team of emergency
medicine pharmacists from around the country in producing an
online curriculum called the Capsules series, which is focused on creating educational modules
related to practical pharmacology for the emergency medicine practitioner. One of my greatest achievements to
date has been being elected to serve as incoming chair of the Emergency
Medicine Practice and Research Network of the American College of Clinical
Pharmacy, where I will take the lead on various activities throughout my
term on behalf of more than 1,000 members of the network in this national
organization. Finally, in their provision of prescriber and patient education
related to medication safety, the Food and Drug Administration (yes,
THE FDA)
cited one of my own
blog entries as a featured reference in a
recently released drug
safety warning. That was the icing on the cake; to have a major federal
agency cite my own writing on an education blog in their efforts to enhance
medication safety was not only a “mind blown” moment for me, but it also
reflects a turning of the tide, demonstrating that our contributions in social
media can be influential on the grand scale – and that you never know who may
be following your work in these outlets.
These opportunities serve as conversation starters of the
penultimate question related to social media: “What’s next?”
There is room for improvement in this medium. We need to
begin to develop those discussions with folks who may be of the “traditional”
mindset, particularly those who may serve on promotion and tenure committees,
on the value of social media in professional development in a manner that they
can understand and appreciate. No longer should it be conventional to scoff at
social media for all of its associations with frivolity and “time wasted”, which
has been a traditionally held attitude in the past. As more and more academics,
researchers, and clinicians professionally engage in social media, it is also
important to recognize the opportunities that arise as a result of their
involvement. In addition, social media is not without its shortcomings, not
unlike any other medium where information is shared, and one area is in the lax
peer review process. There can be any number of methods for conducting peer
review, whether it be pre- or post-publication, of material that is open access
and available for wider web of readers and users. If this is conducted as a
means to enhance the accuracy and quality of information shared within the
resource, it may facilitate presentation of the medium in such a way that
members of promotion and tenure committees may recognize and value, and perhaps
become more receptive in accepting these materials as scholarly activity in the
same manner as traditional print publications.
Suffice it to say that social media is indeed here to stay.
The window of opportunity in the world of social media is wide, and through
these improvements, research and discovery can progress to support and further
the work of contributors of this movement.