An online listserv for nurse practitioners: A viable venue for continuous nursing professional development?

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Summary

This study reports the results of a qualitative study involving a large and longstanding online nurse listserv in the United States. A sample of 27 critical care and advanced-practice nurse practitioners was interviewed using semi-structured individual interviews. This study found evidence that participation in an online listserv offers a viable avenue for the continuous professional development of nurses by providing nurses the opportunity to make more informed decisions about their professional practice and keeping abreast with up-to-date changes in their specialty areas when they shared knowledge with one another. Follow-up interviews with 10 nurses who frequently shared their knowledge revealed six motivators that helped promote knowledge sharing: (a) reciprocity, (b) collectivism, (c) personal gain, (d) respectful environment, (e) altruism, and (f) technology. Implications for sustaining knowledge sharing in an online listserv are discussed. The finding will inform educators and administrators who support continuing education and professional development of healthcare professionals.

Introduction

Health care practice is evolving at an increasing rate, resulting in a vital need for healthcare professionals such as nurses to constantly acquire and maintain current clinical expertise (Forbes et al., 2006, Spencer, 2006). One way to maintain up-to-date clinical expertise is through continuous professional development. Continuous professional development may be seen as a multifaceted enterprise that encompasses both formal and informal learning approaches that can result in positive changes in professional knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavior (Heron and Hammond, 2001). Formal learning approaches, such as specific training and education workshops, however, have been criticized as having the potential to result in codified learning; where knowledge that is acquired is being removed from the place where it is to be actually applied (Brown and Duguid, 1996, Robey et al., 2000).

In contrast, informal learning approaches (e.g., “just-in-time” learning) typically occur in the context of a practitioner’s immediate curiosity, needs or desires (Granger et al., 2002). This need-to-know approach can transform nurses into active knowledge builders possessing substantial autonomy regarding the specific knowledge or skills required. One of the means by which “just-in-time” learning can occur is through informal knowledge sharing among nurses in online listservs.

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study involving a large and longstanding online nurse listserv in the United States guided by the following two research questions: (a) how does participating in an online listserv help nurses’ professional development?, and (b) what are the motivators for nurses to help one another by sharing their knowledge in an online listserv?

Section snippets

Literature review

Continuous professional development, at its core, is about lifelong learning. The significance of lifelong learning for healthcare professionals has been emphasized over the last decade (e.g., Department of Health, 1998, UKCC, 2001). Lifelong learning is frequently linked to increased nurse confidence, awareness of professional issues, and evidence-based or research-centred practice (Smith and Topping, 2001). One of the ways in which lifelong learning can take place is through conversations

Brief description of the online listserv

The Nurse Practitioners (a pseudonym) is an e-mail based listserv. A listserv is synonymous to a mailing list, which is a group of email addresses identified by a single name identification (Pujar et al., 2003). When an email message is sent to this name or identification, it is automatically forwarded to all the addresses on the list. All the members on the list thus get the same message. The messages are transmitted over email and are therefore available only to the members on the list.

The

Research approach and sample

A qualitative research approach was chosen for the purpose of this study (Polit and Hungler, 1999). This approach is suitable given that the key purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of a situation – knowledge sharing among nurses in an online listserv, rather than to generate generalisations.

To solicit participants for the study, we sent out a message to NP-l twice. Specifically, the message contained the purpose of the research and the methodology of the study. Twenty seven

Online listserv as an avenue for continuous professional development

Analyses of interview data indicated that participation in an online listserv helped nurse participants in the following two main ways: (a) making more informed decisions about professional practice, and (b) keeping abreast with up-to-date knowledge.

First, eleven respondents considered that participation in an online listserv helped them make more informed decisions about their professional practice. For instance, Nurse J commented:

Participating in the listserv gives me the opportunity to

Discussion

The results of this study validate principlism (e.g., reciprocity), collectivism, egoism (e.g., personal gain of increased knowledge), and altruism being motivators for knowledge sharing as described in the theories of community involvement. Other motivators are respectful environment and technology (e.g., use of use). The results of this study have interesting implications for administrators of health institutes interested in leveraging an online listserv as an avenue for informal knowledge

Conclusion

This study found that participation in an online listserv offers a viable avenue for the continuous professional development of nurse practitioners, namely through informal knowledge sharing. Knowledge shared is deemed relevant to nurses’ immediate needs and concerns because it is closely tied to the nurses’ daily practice. Despite the lack of a personal, face-to-face relationship and the easy alternative of free-riding on the contributions of others, frequent knowledge sharers contribute

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