It was a usual morning with an early start at 6 o’clock to get the train from Wakefield to London. It was all pretty much typical, Costa coffee in hand and sat waiting patiently, shivering, on the station platform, as I always arrive early. As is also usual, I’m filling in those pockets of time with my Twitter feed on my beloved iPhone and I notice that the HSJ were announcing their first ’Social Pioneers’. As I do, I flick it open and the first thing I notice is a lovely picture of the lovely Teresa Chinn. Then as I scrolled down, there I was: gobsmacked – me a ‘Social Pioneer’?

I am passionate about how information empowers. Information can bring independence and create changes and shift in social order. So bringing information to nurses can enable them to improve their practice, see things in new ways, revolutionise and encourage improvement as well as spotlighting where things might not be right. For citizens, information can drive real change, be disruptive in creating new paradigms of systems and behaviours; I think that ‘Patients Like Me’ is one of the best examples I can think of that shows this; have a look at this story to see what I mean:

‘Frustrated ALS Patients Concoct Their Own Drug’ The Wall Street Journal, April 15^th 2012

This powerful very short TedTalk from Stanley McChystal is about how having the confidence to open up information can make significant differences to what happens and illustrates my point too.

 

‘Information is only of value if you give it to the people who can do something with it’ Stanley McChrystal 2014

‘Sharing is power’ Stanley McChystal 2014

So what has this got to do with me being a ‘Social Pioneer’?

In around 2010 I discovered social media. I’m naturally curious and experimental so, curiosity prompted, I wander into social media. Wandering is a good description – I had little knowledge beyond being a Facebook user, no skills and little insight = scary!

What I discovered was a space that I think has huge potential for nurses but also those people who have health needs – it has the power to transform some aspects of how we use information.

What I also discovered amongst the nursing community was a reticence, anxiety and resistance and sometimes all of these things are still present. It frustrates me sometimes that I sense a lack of professional confidence about using social media and experimenting with its potential amongst many nurses. I also discovered people who I now realise are social pioneers, people with long term conditions and experiences of the health system that I started to follow and watch – I was amazed.

I saw the huge untapped potential that I believe social media offers us. Yes, it breaks down boundaries and flattens hierarchies, but it also has the real potential to change the very nature of the power based relationship between systems and people. I also believe it still has untapped public health potential but it has to move beyond broadcasting to achieve the possible.

So in 2010 I decided that one of the things that was needed were some role models in nursing that showed what could be achieved and as no one else (other than a few notable exceptions like Teresa @agencynurse and a few other pioneers) were taking that on, I decided that I would. If I was to show the power of social media I needed to ‘show’ it, not just point at it; doing presentations about social media is one thing but living it is another. So my ambition was to be a good role model for nurses in social media. That’s when the real pioneer journey began. My delight on being identified as a social pioneer was partly to do with feeling that it was evidence that I had, at least partly, achieved some of what I had set out to do.

In my journey I also discovered a very eclectic diabetes community and I am proud to say that I have also been part of that, making I hope, a contribution based largely on my 35 years of living with type 1 diabetes but of course combined with my other skills and knowledge. I have written with another social pioneer – @parthakar (whom I have never met in real life but know that I will 🙂  )  about the use of social media in the professional interface between professionals and patients – this would never have happened without Twitter. Here it is:

‘A New Dawn: the Role of Social media in Diabetes Education’

That’s why the word ‘pioneer’ was the part that gave me the most satisfaction when I read the piece in the Nursing Times and Health Service Journal supplement. I was also cited alongside many people I greatly admire – each has made a unique and significant contribution. I was delighted that the write up picked up some of the very things I was trying so hard to do, rather than just my level of frenetic activity! That’s exactly what I set out to do, to start to chart the new territory of social media for patients and nurses and other people who are part of the big NHS and social care extended family and I hope I am a little part of an enduring story.

I also came to realise that being called a ‘pioneer’ gave me great satisfaction for other reasons; I have always taken on roles in leading (and sometime ‘bleeding’) edge environments; complaints management in 1990 (listening to complaints then was not what it is now), NHS Direct, the National Programme for IT and informatics is still, in its own way, pioneering. There is also the point that nursing has a strong history of pioneers like Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale – fantastic role models.

So on Wednesday I celebrated with a very large piece of cake!

Anne Cooper – ‘Social Pioneer’ – who would have thought it! Now where is the next territory to explore?

So that’s enough about me (a very self-indulgent blog this week AnnieCoops!): A very big thank you to everyone who was kind enough to nominate me (you know who you are), the Nursing Times and Health Service Journal and the lovely judges: Jenni, Andrew, Shaun and Emma. But also I couldn’t be social without conversations and it is those people who increasingly have the confidence to share, debate, support and push conversations in social media that I need to thank. Your conversations, blogs, video blogs inspire me, help me to grow and learn, support me and enable me to see new futures – thank you.