Positive Experience with Social Networking?

Nursing Students General Students

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I've FINALLY received a letter congratulating me on my acceptance into the LPN program for 2014! Of course, everyone else who has also received acceptance letters have all made statements of joy on our school website and now it has moved to the "let's make a Facebook group" phase. I have seen a lot of people, not just nursing students, posting things that were not thought out, offensive, and illegal and bear dire consequences. However, I am wondering if anyone has had a positive experience by keeping in touch with current classmates via social media. I understand the convenience of having everything available to you instantly online, and I can agree that I would love to help classmates with schoolwork and offer useful tools that would be available for all other members to benefit from. But it is quite difficult to set firm guidelines about what should and shouldn't be posted, and one bad post could compromise the entire group. Any thoughts?

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Well our whole program has a facebook page, not just our class. Many times it's been awesome, asking those ahead of us if we really need to spend $$ on a certain textbook, etc. Sometimes it gets icky though. Mind you, it's a public page (you just have to be a member to post), and I think some people forget that ANYONE can take a look at what's posted. Some people have gotten nasty on there about the nursing office personnel, instructors, you name it. But people also call others out on things: for example, last semester someone posted "to the other lecture group of students who already took the final, what exactly should I study?" :yawn: Really?! People jumped on her with both feet. But mostly it's been good people have been able to talk to students who have been there done that, bought and sold textbooks on there, switched clinical locations or whatever when a scheduling problem arose...so 90% (maybe 95%) of it is good, there's always that small bit that makes you wonder where people's heads are at when they post.

Good luck, both with school and also this particular topic!! :up:

P.S.-I forgot to say also that everyone in our clinical group exchanges phone numbers the first day. If someone misses lecture for whatever reason, we are able to text and ask if anything specific was covered beyond power points, we can call each other if for some reason clinical/school is cancelled (which happened a LOT this past semester because of our sucky winter!), etc. Always a good thing to at least have a couple of people you can call or text in case something happens!

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Well our whole program has a facebook page, not just our class. Many times it's been awesome, asking those ahead of us if we really need to spend $$ on a certain textbook, etc. Sometimes it gets icky though. Mind you, it's a public page (you just have to be a member to post), and I think some people forget that ANYONE can take a look at what's posted. Some people have gotten nasty on there about the nursing office personnel, instructors, you name it. But people also call others out on things: for example, last semester someone posted "to the other lecture group of students who already took the final, what exactly should I study?" :yawn: Really?! People jumped on her with both feet. But mostly it's been good people have been able to talk to students who have been there done that, bought and sold textbooks on there, switched clinical locations or whatever when a scheduling problem arose...so 90% (maybe 95%) of it is good, there's always that small bit that makes you wonder where people's heads are at when they post.

Good luck, both with school and also this particular topic!! :up:

Thanks for your input! That's very convenient that your entire program has a Facebook page. It's a great way to stay in touch with past students as well. That comment about the girl who asked students who already took the final what to study made me literally laugh out loud. I've seen several posts on here already about people who posted confidential information or comments about clinical instructors and so on, which have more often than not led to expulsion and sometimes more drastic measures were taken. I wish that people would censor their thoughts before posting them online, available for everyone to see. However, I will definitely be cautious before joining any pages or groups because I refuse to be kicked out of a nursing program because of social media.

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Specializes in ICU/ Surgery/ Nursing Education.

Our class started with a private facebook page and in theory it isn't a bad idea. I thought it would help others and we could exchange information when needed, but after a while it turned into a instructor complain format. If it would have just stayed positive it would have been great! My opinion is go ahead and start one (private if you can) and if it turns out bad just excuse yourself.

Also don't disclose any patient information or anything. No names, descriptions of procedures you watched, or even which facility you just finished a 12 hours shift out. You can't believe all the horror stories I have been told.

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Our class started with a private facebook page and in theory it isn't a bad idea. I thought it would help others and we could exchange information when needed, but after a while it turned into a instructor complain format. If it would have just stayed positive it would have been great! My opinion is go ahead and start one (private if you can) and if it turns out bad just excuse yourself.

Also don't disclose any patient information or anything. No names, descriptions of procedures you watched, or even which facility you just finished a 12 hours shift out. You can't believe all the horror stories I have been told.

Absolutely, I agree with you 100%. I was thinking it would be mostly for classwork and providing information to help with concepts. Also, setting some guidelines in the description would be ideal, as well as removing any member who violates the terms set. I'm hoping that won't be necessary, though.
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Specializes in ED, Medicine, Case Management.

I also believe that it only takes one or two people to speak up and call out inappropriate behavior/comments to quell them. Be that person. I created a private group for our cohort, therefore I am the administrator, and I will also have no problem removing people if necessary. Good luck to you!

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Specializes in ICU/ Surgery/ Nursing Education.
Absolutely, I agree with you 100%. I was thinking it would be mostly for classwork and providing information to help with concepts. Also, setting some guidelines in the description would be ideal, as well as removing any member who violates the terms set. I'm hoping that won't be necessary, though.

This is how our page was started for but soon it went wayyyyyy off.

You know you should set it up and be the person running it so you can remove people at will. On second thought then you will be hated. Drama you know. Maybe you should just not get involved. :mad::no:

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This is how our page was started for but soon it went wayyyyyy off.

You know you should set it up and be the person running it so you can remove people at will. On second thought then you will be hated. Drama you know. Maybe you should just not get involved. :mad::no:

I don't mind being the enforcer if they're violating guidelines that they agree to by joining the group. I will willingly take the heat of one disgruntled classmate in lieu of having everyone put at risk of suspension or expulsion because of his/her thoughtless comment. But I admit, I do not like drama, especially when there's school to focus on. :banghead:

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I dunno - my cohort has one, I like it... If it gets bad, I will leave/disband it.. But I've had AN members jump down my throat for suggesting that they can be fun/helpful so...I guess.. It is what you make of it?

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We have a 95 person cohort, so keeping everyone in check was theoretically going to be difficult. However, I have to proudly say that my cohort has kept the page very clean and professional for almost 4 semesters. We've only had one incident after a particularly bad instructor situation in which a couple people call the instructor inappropriate names. However, outside of that one post and comment string, nearly everything has been positive.

We almost exclusively use it for keeping up with assignments, asking for help, forming groups, etc, and very very rarely for venting. It's probably not normal, but our cohort skews much older (someone said the average age is 28ish), and so there is a stronger commitment to professionalism in our group.

I would say go ahead and set one up, but have 3 administrators (that way you can vote people out, but still share the hate and drama). Make sure everyone knows that professionalism is the priority and those that continually act immature will be excluded from the group. Make it a private group, but also understand all it takes is one offended member to take a screen shot and turn it in to get everyone in trouble.

You're training to become licensed professionals. Set a high standard for yourself and your classmates.

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Our class has a private group page with just our class in it and I'm not a member bc I'm not a fan of social networking, but I've heard sometimes the over-achievers of the group have all the notes typed up before lecture and that could be helpful, as well as test reviews and study groups. Negatives is of course people complaining and that would get old quickly. I guess you just have to filter through like anything and pull what you need off of it. Sometimes someone else's notes may be helpful as they could have grabbed something from lecture or the book that you missed or needed clarification on.

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