Current job and use of different digital tools
I work as a dental hygienist in public sector and there are many digital tools that relate to my everyday job. For example there is a patient record system and also a enterprise resource planning system. Also the camera images as well as the X-ray images are nowadays in digital form. Then there are digital tools like different kind of digital forms, e-services for our customers like electronic appointment booking, e-letters, remote appointments and our website.
In addition there are of course emails, meetings via Teams, and Microsoft-Office tools and tools related to statistics that I often use at the moment as I work in couple of projects that aim among other things to develop the existing digital tools and increase the amount of them at my workplace. Then there are the digital tools that relate to control of working hours and other things like mileage allowance. I’m sure there are some other tools as well but here is a list of some of the most commonly used ones. When seeing this list it seems to be quite long and I think that the digital tools will get more and more common in the future.
Tools of social media
As said there are many digital tools that I use in my current job, but then what comes to social media and my current workplace I must say that I don’t use much the tools related to it. The social media could be absolutely used more in dental healthcare but I have realized in my current workplace that the work resources are primarily used in other ways as we have a lot of patients to take care of. So there is not much time to take care of this part – even though it would be surely useful. There have been good attempts and great ideas how to include the social media to our work but yet it hasn’t got very popular. But I think that this is very possible in the future. There is, however, social media in very active and regulated use in other sections in my organization.
The social media is a great place to for example share posts, experiences and information. It enables people to find extensively information and to hear and share opinions and experiences. Via social media it is also possible to reduce loneliness. However, the social media has the flip side of the coin as well. It is important to remember that everyone don’t use it and therefore there should be other channels as well to share information. The texts posted should also be considered carefully and from the professional point of view it is important to remember that one represents the company in the texts as well as in the comments. This is a very important thing to remember in the private life and private social media as well and act and write by remembering for example the good manners. It is also possible that among the positive comments there may appear some negative comments – these should both be handled appropriately. In my company there are very strict and regulated guides related to the published texts as well as the comments and I consider this as a good thing. One important thing to remember also is that in social media there are sometimes for example information published by people who are not professionals and some of them almost claiming to be professionals. That is one of the reasons it is always important to be critical what comes to the source of information among social media as well.
What comes to the possible tools one is Facebook. It has been in use at some level in my workplace but as said not very actively. There could be regularly updates that bring our work and our dental clinics in a way closer to the customers. Many people for example fear dental healthcare and this could be a great way to reduce the fear. Also some current information and news could be published via Facebook. And the customers could also ask questions related to the published issues. Same goes with Instagram. Positive updates via images that aim to bring our work closer to the customers. The images could be of our dental clinics, tools, our projects and for example of our staff – we are humans after all trying to take good care of our precious patients even though many of our customers have fears. The updates in such channels like Facebook and Instagram should be on a regular base from our larger as well as from our smaller dental clinics – they differ somewhat and have their own characteristics which I consider as a great thing. Both of these social media tools are very popular ones and they would reach a good amount of people of different age.
Another useful and interesting tool would be Blogger. In my workplace we have employees that are along their actual work among the patients very good in producing good writings. The texts could relate to same things than in Facebook and Instragram that I introduced but also include a professional side. The oral health relate inseparably to the health of the whole human body and there could be interesting writings about the issue targeted to the other health service providers in our organization. The writings could also introduce our everyday work to them considering to start studies in the field of dental healthcare. The trainees could also tell about their training periods in our dental clinics. I also believe that the blogs reach people from different age – it is more about who are interested about this topic.
If there wasn’t Teams in use in my workplace Skype could be a useful tool. The years of coronavirus forced us in my workplace to learn to use these kinds of tools to be able to gather together remotely. Even though today we have somewhat returned to the old ways of working and gathering together in meetings, the remote meetings are also a very common and permanent way of have meetings. It is good that tools like Skype exist. We have noticed that the remote meetings are sometimes much more efficient what comes to the use of time – and time is something we never seem to have too much.
One of my favorite tools would be maybe Youtube. There are many videos that could be produced and published related to dental healthcare. The videos could once again introduce our work on a local base to our customers. On the other hand the videos could introduce the different visits to our clinics. For example children many times wonder how the regular check-up will go and what kinds of things the visit includes – the videos could be about how are the check-ups at a different age. The videos could once again also reduce fears of our customers which is very important. And then of course there could be videos about general things like how to brush your teeth.
Elements of successful use of digital application
Today there are many and again many different kinds of digital tools and applications available. The help that the digital tools and applications offer possibly make the working life easier and make for example some processes more efficient and can save costs at least in the long run. In the company there is good to exist a digital strategy that gives the guidelines to how much digital tools or applications will probably there in use in the company in the future – what is the aim. In addition it gives the guidelines what kinds of digital tools and applications the company aim to get in the future.
The amount of possible tools, however, makes it very important to carefully consider what could be the most useful one for our company’s purposes and suits the best for us. There should be a clear image about why do we need this tool and in which areas it will help our company. It is also important to analyze how long a digital tool or application is going to be in use as they are sometimes very expensive and is there a possibility that in short time there will be a better and longer time serving product soon in the market. This can of course take time but may save time and effort in the end. It is for example a good way to ask for a possibility to test the products before making the final buying decision. Many companies are amenable to this. Careful and as thorough consideration as possible is important because in addition to save time and effort the result can be that a very useful and great sounding product or app turn out to be unsuitable in some way for the company – it can for example be that the product don’t fit with company’s essential systems or programs.
In addition if and when there are new digital tools taken into use in company it is important to let the employees have enough time to learn and to practice the usage of them as well if necessary. Depending on the company there may be employees with very varied skills what comes to the usage of new digital tools and everyone’s need should be taken into consideration. It is also very good to listen to the opinions of staff when considering to get new digital tools – there often emerges points of view that one didn’t for example remember to take into consideration. Also when there is a common information beforehand and understanding among the company and staff about the new digital tool or application it is probably easier to take it into use and integrate it to be part of the company’s everyday operations.
Self evaluation
It was great to imagine in what ways the tools of social media could be used in my workplace. They are not in an active use yet, but through the analysis in this assignment it got clear to me that there are many ways to use them if there are enough resources for the issue in the future. It was also a good thing to analyze the ideas of successful use of digital applications and consider what kind of is the usage of them at the moment in my workplace. Is there something that could be otherwise or better? However, it made me once again realize that no matter how great and fun the new handy digital tools sometimes may sound like they also need a careful and critical consideration.