Critical care training: using Twitter as a teaching tool

Abstract

In 2010, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded a project to explore the usefulness of Twitter as a teaching tool. The project, which was based at the Clinical Simulation Centre at the University of Glamorgan, involved the creation of four short, videoed clinical scenarios and used a high-fidelity mannequin-based simulator. A group of twelve learners on a BSc Critical Care course accessed these videos asynchronously and were encouraged to 'tweet' very short messages on the evolving condition of the patient in the videos, on key clinical decision points or respond to specific questions posted by the tutors. Another group of learners on a pre-registration nursing course used Twitter in a synchronous, face-to-face classroom environment and also tweeted their responses to the videos. The overall aim of the project was to explore the merits, or otherwise, of Twitter as a tool to scaffold learning and engage nursing students in reflection and clinical decision making.