Technologies for Electronically Assisting Nursing Communication

New information and computing technologies promise new virtual learning and communication opportunities within the real communities of health care professionals. The Assisted Electronic Communication project has been prototyping, administering and evaluating an integrated digital discourse, webcasting and digital newsletter system, for health care professionals within one such community an acute UK National Health Service Hospital. The first two of these systems are discussed in this paper. The principal group of health care staff participating in this study were nurses, who were able to access and contribute to threaded, asynchronous discussions and themed information in the context of critical work documents, view and interact with live webcasts by key hospital personnel, and view and submit stories to an online newsletter. The system has been evaluated very positively, and is seen by staff as a way of critically engaging with new material that is getting closer to an idealized vision of learning in the workplace.