My job in private health care as a radiographer and how we use digital tools and Social Media in our work at the time.
I work as a radiographer in Terveystalo which is one of the biggest private health care organisations in Finland. My actual job is taking x-rays, MRIs and mammograpfy images so my job is quite time- and place-bounded. Because Terveystalo is a big organisation we have our own digi group to take care of letting people know about us in Social Media. What I’ve seen it’s mostly advertising and telling people about what Terveystalo has to offer for patients. Some offices has their own facebook sites where patient can also share their experiences. At my actual work we are using Microsoft office (Teams, e-mail, excel etc.) and Intranet for shearing information, getting intructions, having meetings and communicating with colleagues. Of course we are also using Medical Record System to handle appointments, patient information, doctors referrals etc. The job as a rapdiographer is based in imaging machines which are nowadays all digital so actually I’m using dozens of digitals tools at my work.
But then to actual Social media and how I could use them at my work…
In private life I’m using only Google services, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. So I haven’t even heard most of social media platforms mentioned in assigment. But I found out of few of them and used my imagination how I could benefit from them at my work.
Trough Vimeo people can create, modify, share videos and keep video meetings. With this app we could share information in a video mode to our colleagues, patients and also keep educations. Videos are fun and efective way to share information.
With Issuu we could create modern tags for our patients about our services and share them in other Social Media apps. People are more interested in entertaining and funny ways done infomation paper than dull black and white Word files. This app could be perfect for that.
Monday could work for us as a project management app. If there is some projects that are generated by many people in different departments, this could be easy way to keep up what is going on. App looks clear and easy to use.
Mural gives an innovative way to brainstorm ideas in a group. It is a whiteboard in internet. I like the idea to innovate something new with your team and not to do so organized ”excel” type of work. This app could lead to find innovative working ways in our field.
LinkedIn is not in common use among nurses, radiographers etc. I think it is because there is a giant shortage of us and we usually don’t have to put us on market. But this could be usable also to find out and get to know radiographer community in Finland. Networking is important today.
Pros and cons using Social Media at work
Social Media is an easy way to share and get information. Information can be spread for whole world with one click. But because of that we have to be carefull. Especially in health care there is so much sensitive and confidental information. When we want to share something we have to be sure there is no confidental information for people to see. It is still good to see that it is possible to show and share information about health care departments in Finland. That is the way for people to get knowledge about our work.
Nowadays videomeetings are popular in every field and also our weekly/monthly meetings are now in Teams. Our boss is working in other city so that is actually only way to do it. It also allows more people to join the meeting. Negative side in Teams meetings is sometimes the feeling not being heard. I really like face-to-face conversations and it is easier to say what I have to say when I’m at the same space. But I guess I have to learn better ways for comunicating through videomeetings.
Elements of succesul use of digital tools
In my opinion digital applications should be easy to use and well available. If the operating system is too complicated it is hard to learn how to use it. Especially in the work field employees don’t want to waste time for learning difficult systems. Application needs to work well and be beneficial for work. I’ve noticed at the beginning of the work day that even to open a computer and the systems needed it may take 5 minutes or more. It is a problem if the first client is scheduled right after the working time starts. In health care that is quite common I think.
Self-evaluation
I’ve learned that my idea of Social Media was quite narrow. Previously I identified only Instragram, Facebook, WhatsApp etc. as an Social Media App. Mut Social Media is so much more than just those apps. It’s also working apps like Asana or place of creativity like Mural. Maybe in the future after my graduation I can open my tool box and learn how to use those different apps. Right now I’m pretty sure it is not happening at my current job as a radiographer.