Introduction
The Nursing Informatics Scope and Standards of Practice states
that the nurse informaticist “develops evaluation methods to measure the safety
and effectiveness of interventions and outcomes. (American Nurses Association, 2008,
p. 86).” The evaluation of Web 2.0 tools falls into this standard. The tool
to be reviewed is the Facebook page for the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) of
Somerset Hills.
VNA of Somerset Hills is a small not for profit Medicare certified
home health, hospice, community health, and adult day center agency. The
organization has a webpage, a Facebook page and a LinkedIn page to engage the
public in health promotion, to inform the public of upcoming events, and to
advertise its programs. The criteria developed by this student could be useful
in the evaluation of any of these Web 2.0 tools.
Developing an evaluation tool for social media websites requires
an understanding of the user’s needs, the population targeted for health
information and how information is exchanged using these sites. Social media is similar in many ways to social
networks that exist off line. Per Greene et al (2010) offline social networks (e.g.
cancer support groups) have been shown to improve health for those involved. However,
the unregulated, rapidly changing, open access nature of social media has made it
a difficult tool to research. Criteria for evaluation must take this into
account. The five criteria by for evaluation of the Facebook page are: ease of
discovery/ search functions, content relevance, content authenticity and reliability,
interactivity and security.
Criteria Definitions and Rationale
Ease of discovery/ search functions refers to the ability of the
user to find the information on the internet and the ability to locate
information within the site. There are millions of websites devoted to health
information and Facebook alone has more than 400 million users (Greene et al, 2010). Thus,
finding information requires a certain set of skills on the part of the user,
while the site developer may include information to facilitate the search. Search
functions within a tool are used to find specific information of interest and
should be clearly labeled and intuitive.
Content relevance refers to the user’s
perception that the content is useful and applicable to his needs.
Understanding the target audience’s demographics, information needs and
preferences can assist the developer to tailor the information to the audience (Lewis,
et al 2005;
Prybutok, et al, 2014).
Content authenticity and reliability refer to
those delivering and commenting on the information and to the validity of the
information. There is a considerable amount of misinformation, both purposeful
and unintentional, on social media sites (Lau, et al 2012) as well as
unregulated marketing of treatments.
Interactivity is the ability of the user
to share comments and ask questions on the site. Social media is an interactive
tool, but the developer (agency) must then also interact if the site is to be
considered useful (Osborne, 2013).
Finally, security is a necessary evaluation criterion as protecting the privacy
of health information is regulated by law as well as ethically necessary.
Evaluation
Ease of discovery/ search functions: the Facebook page for the VNA
of Somerset Hills is easily found if one looks for it by name. However, if one
were searching general terms such as home health care or hospice, it does not
show up in a search engine search or on Facebook. Once on the page there are no
specific search functions to find specific information.
Content relevance: the content on the page is a mix of healthcare
topics from wellness to hospice, information about VNA programs and events. It
is relevant to the audience who may be seeking information specific to the
agency’s programs or general health. It is not disease specific and would not
be relevant to someone looking for in- depth information.
Content authenticity and reliability: the health content on the
page is linked from national experts or known reliable health information sites
such as the Centers for Disease Control. No treatments are marketed although
the agency’s services are mentioned.
Interactivity: there are
not many comments on the site and most are related to fund raising or messages
about events. The only one that may be considered relevant is a complaint from
a consumer who had the wrong agency. This was answered by the person who
manages the page with information on how to contact the agency should she need
any of our services. The functionality for interactivity exists but it has not
been used in that way.
Security: this is an open access page that anyone can post on and
is therefore not secure. However, the
agency has a social media policy that states no patient information may be
posted without consent.
The criteria developed by this student were effective in
evaluating the Facebook page. The page’s effectiveness as a tool to educate the
public is somewhat limited by the format of the page (i.e. it is not
searchable, nor specific to a disease), as well as its relative obscurity on
the internet. However, the page did contain useful general health information
(flu information, health care decision making information, caregiver support)
and agency specific information. All of these could be beneficial to the
consumer. It could be used to greater effect if it did not also have event information
such as fundraising information. It may be more useful if more users interacted
on the page.
References
– what
are the safety concerns for health consumers. Health Information Management Journal, 41(2), 30-35. Retrieved from http://himaa2.org.au/HIMJ/
Rita,
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not Facebook, I find it interesting that so many organizations have a page. Your evaluation of the usefulness of Facebook was very enlightening. I wonder who is responsible for keeping it up to date.
Rita,
ReplyDeleteYou have done Thorough evaluation of web 2.0 tool, Many institutes use face book as web tool to communicate with consumers with new innovations and updates.
Nayana
Hi Rita,
ReplyDeleteFacebook page always connects the patient to providers and it gives us informations regarding the current hospital education programs.
Rita, Facebook is very popular with many organizations. It's an important way to stay connected with consumers while also using it as a marketing tool to get more business. Great job on your evaluation of Web 2.0
ReplyDeleteJudy
Rita,
ReplyDeleteVery nice job. I also chose facebook to evaluate for my organization. I find it very user friendly which is important if they want people to use it. I was surprised at how many other social media sites these organizations use.