My Experiences with Digitalization in My Work
The social and healthcare sector has long been undergoing a digital transformation, and the pace is only accelerating. Therefore, it is an excellent time to develop one’s own skills to keep up with this development. In my professional life as a nurse, social worker, and early childhood education teacher, I have become familiar with numerous digital solutions.
Let’s start with patient and client information systems, which are used in virtually every social and healthcare workplace. Examples include the aging Effica and the later Lifecare. Various electronic assessment tools are also well known, used to evaluate factors such as a patient’s or client’s health status, influencing factors, level of daily living ability, or mental health condition. Examples include the RAI (Resident Assessment Instrument) assessment system, which measures the need for services among the elderly, their functionality, health status, and resources, as well as the web-based AUDIT test that measures alcohol risk consumption. Social and healthcare digital support methods also include various chat and remote consultation services, where clients can discuss their concerns anonymously or under their own name with a professional or a volunteer. For example, the Sekasin chat for young people allows anonymous and confidential discussions about concerns, and remote nurse consultations provided by various medical centers.
The education sector also extensively utilizes the opportunities of digitalization. A prominent example is the Päikky operational management system used in early childhood education, which records and manages all information related to children’s early education plans, support needs, contact information, and care times between families and staff. Päikky also serves as the primary communication tool between the daycare and families, similar to the Wilma system in schools. In education, children use various mobile applications daily to support growth and learning. Examples include digital timers that visually represent transition times in a way that is engaging for young children, and apps that help children practice shapes, colors, numbers, or English. One of the most popular digital tools among children is the Beepot bee-bot robot, which introduces the basics of coding and supports the development of mathematical skills. It is noteworthy that even in early childhood education legislation and guiding documents, there is an emphasis on a young child’s right to learn and the educator’s duty to guide children in the sensible and safe use of digital devices and media. Thus, digital skills might be seen as a measure of general education. Today, young people socialize and meet through various social media and online gaming platforms, making it possible to reach those in need of help through the services offered on these channels.
Future Perspectives on Digitalization
In my work as an early childhood educator, my role is 100% on-site, but it includes five hours per week allocated for planning, assessment, and development (SAK time). This SAK time must be spent at the workplace and cannot be done remotely, for example, from home. Unfortunately, there are very few quiet workspaces available at the workplace, and I believe that SAK time could be utilized much more effectively in a quieter home environment, which would benefit the child group, the work team, and the workplace itself. During SAK time, it could be beneficial to use remote connections for discussions with the team, families, and supervisors, as well as for joint planning with other teachers. Such a model could be successfully implemented with existing digital solutions, but it would require dialogue at the workplace to introduce this new practice.
Documentation takes up a significant amount of time in the day of social and healthcare professionals, and I wonder if artificial intelligence could be used in the future for various time-consuming written tasks. This way, professionals would have more time to interact with clients and patients. Digitalization could also be used more extensively in organizing various activities in residential units and day services, as staff today have unfortunately very little time for such activities due to insufficient resources.
In summary, digitalization could be used to enhance work efficiency by modifying old and cumbersome work arrangements and redirecting the valuable time of employees from administrative tasks to direct patient interaction, which is perhaps the most important aspect of work in the social and healthcare sector.
Evaluating the Risks of an Open Digital Society
An open digital society has brought with it various risks related to data security, privacy, and the protection of personal information. Cybersecurity threats, such as cyberattacks, pose significant risks by potentially stealing and misusing personal data. The digital world contains a vast amount of information that falls under privacy protection, and this protection can be easily compromised if data is misused or insufficiently protected. Personal data is collected in various contexts, and there is a risk that it could be misused for purposes such as marketing or similar activities.
While it is easy to find good and relevant information in today’s open digital world, it is also important to note the possibility of spreading false or distorted information, which can undermine trust and the sense of security.
Data Protection Reform (GDPR) and Its Impact on My Work Life
The Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC, is better known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Its purpose is to harmonize data protection laws across EU member states, safeguard individuals’ personal data, and improve data protection practices.
The effects of the data protection reform are significant both personally and professionally. On the positive side, due to enhanced data protection and its accompanying requirements, I pay much more attention to the secure and reliable handling of personal data in my work. For instance, I always ensure that I store and handle information according to given data security guidelines, never leaving any documents lying around on my desk, but instead keeping everything in a locked cabinet, even for brief absences. The reform also reminded me that, as a patient/client, I have the right to know who is handling my data and for what purposes, which I consider a very positive aspect.
Of course, the data protection reform has also brought some negatives. In the workplace, although the reform is overall beneficial, it does increase the workload. The workday includes many different procedures related indirectly or directly to data protection issues, consuming a significant amount of time, often without realizing it. An independent worker needs to manage a large amount of information related to data protection. In personal life, the “restrictions” brought by the data protection reform sometimes seem a bit exaggerated, for example, when trying to access certain information easily, but data protection regulations make it surprisingly time-consuming to get that information.
In summary, although the risks of an open digital society are significant, the data protection reform provides means to safeguard individuals’ data and improve data protection practices. It is important to balance the benefits of digital innovations with potential risks to create a safe and reliable digital environment.
ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence
First, I asked ChatGPT what the “National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care” means. ChatGPT correctly responded that it is a document guiding the implementation of early childhood education in Finland. It defines the goals, contents, and methods of early childhood education, supporting the growth, development, and learning of children. The Core Curriculum provides unified guidelines and quality criteria that early childhood education units must follow.
Secondly, I asked what “small group pedagogy in early childhood education” means. Again, I received a correct answer from ChatGPT, stating that small group pedagogy in early childhood education refers to dividing a group of children into smaller groups, where they receive more individualized support and guidance. The goal of this pedagogy is to improve children’s well-being, interaction, and learning, as well as to enable the teacher to be more present and attentive to each child.
I received completely accurate answers to both of my questions from the AI. However, the questions were relatively simple, and the answers could easily be found by Googling. I believe artificial intelligence can be an excellent aid in various civil or work-related issues, but it is essential to remember not to rely too heavily on it. At its best, AI could enhance work efficiency and allocate resources where human effort is more needed. AI should, however, always be used with careful consideration and should never replace the work that is important for humans to do for one another: encounters, conversations, and presence. Instead, in information retrieval and tasks such as writing reports, AI could certainly be a great help for professionals in the social and healthcare sectors.
Self Evaluation
At the beginning of this course, I have learned a quite much! I had never maintained or written a blog before, but now I know how to set up a blog and write in it, even in English. With the first blog post, I delved deeper into the details of GDPR and reflected more profoundly on my professional background from the perspective of digitalization, gaining new insights that I had not considered before.
Writing this blog feels like a very engaging way to complete the course, as I enjoy this type of writing. I am already looking forward to working on the next blog post tasks.
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