The first perception that comes to mind when one thinks of social media on the job, especially when it’s a fast-paced, high-stakes surgical environment, is people slacking off by glancing at their phones when they should be working. Social media is more than personal Facebook and TikTok accounts, however, and nurses could leverage it to make workdays more productive and even to advance their careers.

We recently surveyed surgical nurses about their perception of social media to gauge their current understanding of the medium and identify opportunities for teaching them about its many uses. A significant number of nurses said they didn’t feel using it could benefit their practice or career. To help change that misconception, we decided to develop a social media in-service.

We first researched how social media was used in the profession that included recommendations from the American Nurses Association and the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Here are some of the topics we covered during the education sessions.