Understanding online networking
needs
AORN's Nurse Educator/Clinical Nurse
Specialist SA conducts survey to understand member online
communication needs
By Carina
Stanton, MA
Senior News Writer/Editor
Each AORN specialty assembly has an online community of practice that members can access free as part of their SA membership. The online community of practice, commonly known as a CoP, serves as an online networking tool with sections for posting resources, online conversations and contact information to help specialists learn from each other to improve their practice.
However, many specialty assembly leaders responsible for managing the specialty CoPs have voiced questions and concerns about the low numbers of members who appear to use the online communities, when compared to the large number of members who belong to AORN specialty assemblies.
"Our specialty assembly has over 2, 600* members and we have a great wealth of knowledge among our membership, but we need to take advantage of our online resources and use the CoP to network and share this knowledge throughout the year," said Lynn Gentz, RN, BSN, CNOR, a perioperative clinical educator at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, Ala., and immediate past chair of the Nurse Educator/Clinical Nurse Specialist SA.
To better understand how members use their SA CoP, Gentz and other members of her SA coordinating council created an electronic survey to determine what members think about the CoP and what they need from the SA. The survey was distributed by email to more than 2,100** SA members earlier this year, and some of the responses were surprising.
For example, of the 407 respondents who completed the survey, 43% said they had never used the SA online CoP and 35% said they did not know what the online CoP was. Despite this high rate of members who responded that they are not using the SA CoPs, 43% of respondents answered that they do use the CoP to post and share documents with people around the world.
"These numbers suggest that the members who do use the CoP are taking advantage of document sharing and other tools we can all use to make the most of this networking group. We just need to increase awareness of the CoP and help members understand how to use this resource," Gentz stressed.
In addition to responding to questions, respondents also had an opportunity on the survey to suggest their own needs from the SA, such as getting feedback from clinical educators about the use of AORN's Periop 101: A Core Curriculum and finding updates on teaching tools that have been successfully used.
Gentz and other members of the SA coordinating council, including current SA chair Elaine Miller, RN, will evaluate these needs as they continue developing the resources and information provided through the SA's CoP.
The SA's primary goal is to leverage the CoP to continue opening the lines of communication to SA members.
"The survey showed us our SA members like what we have done so far and helped us determine where the SA needs to go from here, which is so important," Gentz added.
To learn more about the survey findings, visit the Nurse Educator/Clinical Nurse Specialist SA online and select the Nurse Educator/Clinical Nurse Specialist Specialty Assembly.
Want to learn more about the online communities? Read an online overview and learn more about AORN's specialty assembly online CoP.
*Correction: In the print version of this story this inaccurately reported this number as 1, 300. The correct number of members in the Nurse Educator/Clinical Nurse Specialist SA is 2, 600.
**Correction: The print version of this story inaccurately reported this number as 1,000. The correct number of members who received the survey by email is 2,100.