Digital Nursing

Digital nursing  | ajcjobs.com.

Consultant uses social media, the Web to share expertise

By Laura Raines
For AJC Jobs

In 35 years as a clinical care nurse, Barbara McLean has never lost her focus on improving bedside nursing. Thanks to Internet technology and social media, McLean’s bedside reach is now global.

Barry Williams, Special Barbara McLean looks at her website. McLean uses podcasts, Facebook and other social media to communicate with the medical staff at the hospital she volunteers with in Haiti.

“I always wanted to mentor and inspire others to higher levels of practice,” said McLean, MN, RN, CCRN, CCNS, CRNP, FCCM.

At 58, this independent critical care practice consultant uses an interactive website, podcasts, Facebook and Twitter to inform and educate a worldwide nursing audience.

“I saw, early in my career, that hospitals didn’t always have the experts they needed in house to take practice to a higher level,” McLean said. “I was fortunate to have a gift for public speaking and to possess the ability to put complex issues in a form that people can understand.”

In 1985, she began her consulting practice by teaching in hospitals, publishing her research and lecturing at conferences. She’s given more than 2,000 national and international presentations on evidence-based, critical-care topics such as patient safety, quality care, sepsis, ventilation and tissue oxygenation.

Her work with Piedmont Health System’s staff to reduce mortality in sepsis patients resulted in the award-winning McLean Piedmont Stop Sepsis algorithm. The project reduced sepsis mortality in the Piedmont System by 30 percent starting in 2008, and has been adopted by other hospitals.

About eight years ago, McLean developed a website to deliver continuing education to nurses through webinars and podcasts. Her goal was to create a library with lectures on best practices that nurses can download and instantly put to use.

Keeping up with best practices “is just one of the reasons that nurses need to stay at least minimally abreast of all that’s happening with virtual technology,” McLean said. “These are powerful tools we can use.”

Read the full story here!  Digital nursing  | ajcjobs.com.