Blog #4, Chp 4 The Connected Educator

The fourth chapter of the Connected Educator is called “Building a Collaborative Culture”. The author emphasizes how important it is for one to develop relationships in their professional career. In past chapters, the author frequently offers technological and educational tools to further and enhance one’s professional reputation and career. In this chapter, the author urges readers to create relationships and connections with individuals in the same field. Creating these solid connections with coworkers, or even individuals with the same common goal, develops a sense of trust and helps that common goal get achieved more efficiently and rapidly. There are two types of relationships that appear to be needed: congenial and collegial. Congenial relationships are cooperative, happy, and pleasantly working in the same environment. Collegial relationships are those in which there is shared responsibility among colleagues. Perhaps more important is collegial relations, because these are take more seriously and are more goal-oriented.

Within the chapter, the author mentions the four stages of collaboration within a group of colleagues. The initial stage, known as forming, is similar to an orientation. It is when the members initially grow comfortable among each other and get to know one another. Storming, the next step, involves conflict, confrontation, and basically much disagreement. There is not peace made in this stage, but there must be disagreement to build an efficient team. The next phase is known as norming. In this stage, there becomes common ground amongst members, and they calculate what is the best way to meet their end goals. And the final step, known as performing, is when the goal is accomplished and the relationship is fully developed.

While I understand that developing relations is vital to all fields and all careers, I truly comprehend how this relates to my future career as a nurse. In the medical field, specifically in the hospital, there are many different jobs, stages, and levels. There are nurses, physicians, technicians, surgeons etc. I think that developing these collegial relationships among other jobs within the medical field is vital. It is so important to establish trust between employees. With trust among members, the common goal, which is help and save patients, is much easier to reach. Moreover, it is essential for myself to form these collegial connections among other nurses. Nursing is a busy and high stress job. Developing these relationships will not only help the goal get reached more efficiently, but it will make the stressful job, not as difficult.

Blog #3: Chapter 5 The Connected Educator

Chapter 5 of the Connected Educator is titled “Using Tools to Support Connected Learning”. The authors of this novel introduce different ways in which we, as connected learners, can utilize tools to support our professional careers. As we know, tools cannot be used to their fullest potential, unless we truly understand how to use them. The authors remind learners of connected education to create a consistent and professional username throughout different websites. There were three basic tools outlined within this chapter, including bookmarking tools, connecting and collaboration tools, and continued education in the classroom.

One of the initial tools introduced was tagging, otherwise known as social bookmarking. This concept is a simple way for individuals to organize the information that is gathered online. In this way, it makes it more simple to be shared with other users. There were two websites offered from the novel, called Delicious and Diigo. These tools allow users to bookmark the information and knowledge they deem valuable from the internet. These sites assist individuals in saving and tagging their online resources, and moreover organize so that users can gain easy access to this information. The second piece offered by the authors was the connection and collaboration tools. Some examples of these tools were blogs, podcasts, google reader, google docs, wikis, and twitter. These websites, or tools, offer users the ability to outlet information or read about information of specific topics. Blogs allow users to read about those topics or even write about topics that interest them Podcasts are digital audio files on the internet that can be downloaded by listeners. Podcasts are designed for audio purposes and allow listeners to gain knowledge this way. The final tool offered in this chapter are those for teachers, for continued and extended learning.

All of these tools can be useful in my future career as a nurse. As mentioned in previous blog posts, education as a nurse does not end when we graduate. There is always further knowledge to be gained in the medical field. As time goes on, science is always expanding and humans are learning more. This strongly correlates to nursing, because as more information is discovered, there is more information that we must apply to the medical field, meaning that nurses can always continue their education. Delicious and Diigo can be used in the nursing world as I can organize the information that I deem important to my field of study. Moreover, using blogs and podcasts allows for my to not only connect with others with the same professional goals as myself, but to gain more knowledge by researching the information I am hoping for. I think for my professional career Wikis are the most useful as the information is easy to access and understand. The website is simple to navigate and it is full of vast information. After reading this chapter, it brings up the question, do all careers require continued education like the medical field?

App Smackdown- 1 Medscape

I have chosen the app called Medscape to complete my first Smackdown Assignment on. Medscape is a medical reference guide that provides users with information regarding medications, conditions, procedures, and up-to-date information regarding clinical guidelines. The app provides an online database to its users. This allows users to access the medical community that includes more than 250,000 physicians worldwide to ask questions and share information, cases, and experience. The app itself is very simple to navigate, and provides step by step tools and instructions to reach the information on is trying to gain.



Medscape can be utilized by various healthcare professionals and medical students. This application provides users with multiple different references regarding the medical field. The fields within the app that I viewed as most critical and important to the medical world were the reference tabs. the Drug Reference Tool, the drug interaction checker, the pill identification guide, the medical calculators, and the clinical guideline tab. The most useful tool is the reference guide. The reference guide provides users with organized information of different medical conditions and illnesses as well as procedures. The information in this is well-formatted and it is easy to find. The illnesses are organized by their topic of medicine, such as "dentistry" or "cardiology". The procedures are listed by their bodily system, such as "obstetric and Gynecologic" or "Brain and Spinal Cord". There is updated information and articles regarding the condition or procedure, provided by doctors and other medical personnel. The app, Medscape, also contains a Drug Reference Tool, assisting healthcare professionals in looking up drugs and their dosages. This tool drastically saves time for medical professionals. A user will click this tab, then select their drug of choice. If I wanted to learn more about Abilify, I would select this name. Upon selection I would be given the dosage and indications, as well as adverse effects, interactions, and much more. Additionally, it cross checks interactions between different drugs, and their possible adverse effects. The User would type in 2 to 30 different drugs to see if there's any possible danger in their combination. Next is the tool for pill identification. The user would provide the shape, the color, and the markings. The app would then be able to figure out the drug or narrow it down to a select few options. There are many medical calculators offered on this app, as healthcare providers use these daily. The app gives information regarding the latest clinical guidelines. This is essential in healthcare profession, as these guidelines must be followed. Having the rules right at your fingertips, makes these much more simple to follow.



I am currently a Nursing student at Stockton University. This app can be used for myself both in and out of school. I can, along with all other students with a medical major, use this app to reference information, including that of medications, certain medical conditions and illnesses, and specific information on procedures. Moreover, the calculator can be used in problem solving too. This can be used in the clinical setting in school for myself. While this app will be helpful for myself in school, I believe it will be vital as a nurse. In school, we are taught about endless drugs, conditions, and procedures. While important to know the basics, it is impossible to memorize everything. That is why this guide would be essential for nurses in the workplace.Clinical guidelines and rules are being changed nationally all the time. This tool allows nurses to stay on top of the dynamic guidelines in the healthcare world. Nurses are very busy on the job, so utilization of tools, such as the hundreds of medical calculators provided by this app, results in time-saving and the completion of providing entirely accurate information. These are just a few of the items that nurses are able to use from this app, more items would include the directory, the pill identifier, and the pricing/saving tab. Overall, the app Medscape can be used by students with medical majors and by all healthcare providers, as the information is endless and organized throughout the mobile app.

Here is the link to my virtual presentation!

https://youtu.be/NZF1xDc5iXk