"The world where we are living in now - despite having a heavy investment in technology - is still dependent on our social and very human interactions."
This quote by Barbara Glickstein, faculty of the Nurse Messenger training I'm attending, is so reassuring to me. We are often consumed by social media - it's all around us, every day, and sucks us in like a vacuum. But in reality, technology in this sense is only and added path of information, something in addition to the shoulder-to-shoulder teamwork.
Barbara is a public health nurse executive, health policy expert, and broadcast journalist. She is co-founding director of the Center for Health Media and Policy at Hunter College, City University of New York. And for the past 25 years, she has produced and hosted "Healthstyles," an award-winning, weekly program on public radio in New York City. She is extremely active in areas of healthcare advocacy, gender inequality, religious and ethnic intolerance, trafficking in women, and women's health.
Along with Barbara, Diana Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the co-founder and co-director of the Center for Health Media and Policy. Dr Mason is the Rudin Professor at the Hunter College, City University of New York. She Produces and moderates "Healthstyles," with Barbara Glickstein, a live, award-winning radio program of 25 years. She is a blogger for "Disruptive Women in Healthcare" and the "American Journal of Nursing (AJN);" Dr. Mason served for over ten years as the editor-in-cheif of the AJN, where she continues an emeritus position.
The training I am lucky enough to be a part of this week is called "Nurse Messenger Training," and I'm working alongside 12 true leaders in nursing as we develop our media presence. All nurses are naturally educators and communicators! Barbara states, "Nurses can even communicate while running alongside a gurney!" We are natural lobbyists, as our passion lies in patient advocacy. But what can we actually do with this ability?
We each have a message to share, and defining that message gives us the power to share it. YOU have the ability to share messages that are clear, concise, and powerful, and that call for some kind of action. What would YOUR message be?
