In our previous blog we pressed pause and took a moment to look back on the lessons learnt from a range of internal projects we have completed within our athletic development programme. We surmised that our biggest investment over time should be focused on enhancing movement skills and competencies, balanced against high quality yet small doses of high threshold running and change of direction exposure. Alongside this we referenced the critical importance of the appreciating the holistic development of the young athlete in sport through optimising the coach-athlete relationship and supporting wellness. In this blog we will divert slight to consider how the growing impact of social media can act as a rich environment for professional development as a sport science practitioner in youth sport. If we believe that to question much, is to learn much and retain much, our engagement and filtering of content, resources and opinion on social media may be critical to optimising social media as a learning environment.
Our clinical working environment often dictates the clientele that walk through the door. As a physiotherapist in a youth sport environment, sports injuries and growth disorders are our bread and butter. We can often go a whole day seeing nothing but anterior knee pain. But then someone, outside your normal population will walk through your door and challenge your clinical reasoning, simply because it’s a condition you haven’t treated in a while. So how do you stay abreast of the evidence base and stay current with your practice?
In recent years we have recognised the growing impact of social media on the accessibility of research articles, opinions and knowledge sharing in the area of rehabilitation. The interactive nature of social media not only helps knowledge exchange amongst healthcare professionals (Davis and Voyce 2015), but it also allows for the promotion of physiotherapy services and the wider healthcare practice. Social media is being utilised by individuals across their working lives. A YouGov report in 2014 revealed that 38% of participants were using social media for learning, networking and/or sharing knowledge. Lawson and Cowling (2015) and Benetol and colleagues (2015) found that worldwide, health care professionals were using social media to facilitate networking, development and reflection. This includes popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a range of blogging platforms.
There are a number of reasons why social media as a CPD tool has become so popular. These include:
• Accessibility: content is available 24 hours a day and is accessible around your job and home life.
• Networking: there is the ability to talk and discuss with a variety of different professions and professionals, with easy access to so called “experts”
• Learning: the fast-paced nature of Twitter and other platforms allows for sharing of new developments in real time, such as policy changes and release of new research that help clinicians stay at the forefront of their profession and work to the latest practice guidelines
• Financial: there is no cost to using social media. You can read about new research, watch conference presentations, share ideas and learn from others all in one place.
The points above highlight how social media can be utilised as a live and freely accessible platform for professional development in the field of physiotherapy. As long as we keep sharing, learning and engaging, social media can positively influence over practice over time. In order to optimise this learning process it may be that we can better filter incoming content and be active in our engagement. The process below may be effective in doing so:
1. Reach – be broad in your engagement with social media. Use multiple platforms, engage with content across multiple domains and from a range of sources.
2. Act – be proactive on stepping in to social media and engaging with content. Reply to posts, ask a question or share an opinion. Be an active consumer.
3. Convert – be brave and utilise content that you believe may positively impact your practice. Ensure you re-mix and convert relative to the opportunities and constraints of your working practice
4. Engage – re-share your experiences of utilising content that you have reached out for, acted on and converted from social media. Contribute back into the learning process.
In summary, we cannot shy away from the growing influence of social media with the field of sport science and potential for social platforms to influence our practice. The accessibility, networking potential and limited financial outlay means the impact of social media on professional development is here to stay. We challenge you to reach, act, convert and engage with content as a proactive stakeholder to optimise the use of social media to enhance not degrade learning in the field of physiotherapy in youth sport. How do you question, learn and retain content on social media?
Millfield Institute of Sport and Wellbeing 