Journal of Research in Nursing

The role of the internet, and in particular e-health, in chronic illness is a burgeoning phenomenon but its use to date in cancer care is somewhat limited. In this study an iterative consultative process was undertaken with the aim to develop a cancer care website that was patient-led, facilitated cancer self-management and had the potential to improve communication between patients, family and friends and health care professionals. The process involved multiple demonstrations of an already established base platform (SeeCare^©) to potential end users (patients, family members and friends and health professionals) to identify required functions of a cancer care specific platform. An exhaustive list of specifications was prioritised and operationalised resulting in a web platform for people affected by cancer that was ready for testing in the clinical setting: CanCare.

Health ICT is rapidly gaining popularity among policy makers and health consumers. Specific platforms for use in cancer care are missing.

The rapid increase in gene-disease discoveries offers real promise of clinical applications for people and families affected by genetic conditions but for which health professionals are not prepared because of lack of training. The availability of clinically relevant education resources is critical to enabling nurses to develop the appropriate genetics-genomics knowledge and skills to provide optimum care for individuals and families.

The Internet is a core resource to support teaching and learning in nurse education. Evaluating such resources is important to maximise the education experience, particularly for subjects traditionally perceived by nurses as being difficult. Telling Stories, Understanding Real Life Genetics is a web-based educational resource. It uses real accounts from individuals and professionals to promote understanding of the impact of genetics-genomics on the lives of people and their families. Google Analytics™ Web analytics service provides time series data for analysing web usage to optimise website effectiveness. We present data of visitor activity and behaviour from 123 countries over three years from 2009–2011 and consider how the application of the web analytics informs approaches to enhancing visibility of the website, provides an indicator of engagement with genetics-genomics both nationally and globally, and informs future expansion of the site as a global resource for health professional education.

Telling Stories is an accessible, broad-reaching resource that is of global relevance for health professionals, attracting over 33,500 visitors between 2009–2011, with steadily increasing numbers of returning visitors. The United Kingdom, United States, Canada and the Netherlands are the largest site users. Returning visitors spend significantly more time on site and view more pages than new visitors. Most referring sites are education establishments. More needs to be done now to enhance the site’s accessibility for people of other languages and cultures.

The use of mobile devices for professional, business, educational, personal and social purposes has accelerated exponentially over the last decade. Staff working in healthcare organisations, and patients and visitors using healthcare settings, understandably want to use mobile technology. Concerns have been raised about safety in terms of interference with equipment, and threats to privacy and dignity, yet less policy attention has been paid to infection risks.

Healthcare professional students were supplied with smartphones as part of a larger educational project. Devices collected from a sub-sample of students working in operating theatre contexts were sampled to estimate the cross-contamination potential of the technology. A longitudinal multiple measures design was used. Under laboratory conditions, samples were taken from surfaces using swabbing techniques followed by contact plating. The devices were subsequently cleaned with 70% isopropyl alcohol and returned to the students.

All devices demonstrated microbial contamination and over three quarters (86%) polymicrobial contamination. The technique and sites used to sample for microbial contamination influenced the levels of contamination identified. Swabbing alone was less likely to isolate polymicrobial contamination than contact plating, and some microorganisms were isolated only by contact plates and not by swabbing of the same area.

The findings from this study demonstrate further research is urgently needed to inform evidence-based infection control policy on the use of personal equipment such as mobile devices in the healthcare settings where contamination may have adverse effects on patients, staff and visitors.

This theoretically focused and discursive paper explores the role that participatory media can play in the field of nursing research and subsequent knowledge dissemination. Being able to gather information, sieve through it, access the latest developments in the field, and produce new information is a core part of the academic researcher’s role. Moreover, it could even be argued that for centuries it has been knowledge workers’ main tangible work currency. Indeed, the information age is not exclusive of the networked society. Haigh (2010) has noted that the information gathering and sharing opportunities, referred to as participatory media, offered by the second generation of web design that allow for information sharing – known as web 2.0 – have expanded our horizons beyond academia to the whole of the global research and education community. If we accept the premise that the use of social networks in the development of ideas is one that has a long and distinguished pedigree, then it can be seen that the role of participatory media is the latest iteration in its evolution. What makes this development such a challenge for nursing research in particular is that whilst nursing academia generally remains suspicious of the advantages offered by technology, this paper argues that the next 10–15 years will see an increase in the chasm between the existing research community and the next generation of researchers. This has been attributed to the difference between the two groups in their approach and attitude to technology.