(Also may be referred to as "MHST601 Assignment #1".)
This journey to create a professional digital identity could be compared to the experience many patients we work with experience when they are trying to change a health behavior. My initial response was feeling resistant, uncomfortable, and asking myself “is it worth it?”. When I practiced as a clinical dietitian in chronic disease management, I heard similar sentiments from my patients as they began changing their way of eating after being diagnosed with a chronic illness. So just like they did, I began making my way through the Transtheoretical Model of Change (Prochaska & DiClemente,1982). Over the past few weeks I’ve moved from pre-contemplation (“Why am I doing this?”) to contemplation (“This will help me to achieve my goals.”) to preparation (“I’ll test tools like Wix and Zotero.”) and now action. With time and practice I hope to get to the maintenance stage, just like a patient seeking nutrition support would while receiving the needed knowledge and skills from a trusted healthcare team.
Finding my Online Identity
As I gathered the information and tools that I needed to move into the action stage, a few key moments of reflection assisted me. The first was to understand the benefits of social media participation. As cited by Ventola, there can be many positives for health care providers to use social media including to promote health behaviors, raise awareness of health policy, share credible information and interact with the public, patients, caregivers, students and colleagues (2014). I can appreciate that my professional participation in social media will support my goals and aspirations to make the world a healthier place.
Second, was to review the Social Media Guidelines from my professional regulatory body, the College of Dietitians of Alberta. The points which stood out most were the recommendations to consider what the goal of the social media account is, who the audience is, what they value and how I want to be perceived by the audience (College of Dietitians of Alberta, 2020). I want to create an online presence that reflects my curiosity and openness to learn. Through an ePortfolio, Twitter and LinkedIn this will be done by communicating with sincerity and respect, while listening, learning and engaging in constructive interactions with other health professionals.
The Value of Values
To ground my competency and confidence in this new online presence I am looking to my values. I don’t have enough word count in this assignment to dive deep into the topic of values, but Brene Brown offers a simple definition that resonates; “A value is a way of being or believing that we hold most important" (2018, p. 186). While I navigate this new (and somewhat uncomfortable) task to build my professional presence online I commit to continually check-in with myself that I approach this with respect, integrity, curiosity, humility, and balance.
“A value is a way of being or believing that we hold most important. Living into our values means that we do more than profess our values, we practice them. We walk our talk - we are clear about what we believe and hold important, and we take care that our intentions, words, thoughts, and behaviors align with those beliefs.”
(Brown, 2018, p. 186)
Making Sense of my Place
By education I am a Registered Dietitian but in current practice my job title is “Well-being Advisor” for a mid-sized municipal government. I don’t serve the community like most of the employees in my organization, but rather I serve those who serve the community. My role lives within the intersection of health, wellness and business. It is a privilege to work for an employer who has created a position dedicated to the health and well-being of its staff and workplace.
So, where do I fit in the system and do I fit at all? A 2010 publication by Statistics Canada cited that 62% of Canadian workers identify work as their main source of stress (Crompton) and there is a large and growing body of research, such as that by Yaribeygi et al. (2017), that stress can have detrimental impacts on both the physical and psychological aspects of human health. For example, in a recent survey by LifeWorks, Canadian respondents identified that workplace and/or personal stress was causing sleep difficulties, an inability to relax and negative impacts to their emotional wellbeing (2022). I view my current role within the system as one piece in the big puzzle; where my focus is on creating the workplace as an environment that fosters positive health behaviors and enables access to formal health supports such as extended health benefits and training.
I have plenty to share through my growing online presence, but I believe I have more to learn from others. Just like individuals going through the stages of change for a given health behavior, I am going through similar stages as I align my professional identity, values and experiences to the digital environment.
- Kylie
References
Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. New York, Random House.
College of Dietitians of Alberta. (2010, November). Social Media Practice Guidelines. Retrieved September 25, 2022 from https://collegeofdietitians.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Social-Media-Practice-Guidelines-November-2020.pdf
Crompton, S. (2011, October 13). What’s stressing the stressed? Main sources of stress among workers. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11-008-x/2011002/article/11562-eng.pdf?st=dMToa320
LifeWorks. (2022). The Mental Health Index by LifeWorks - Canada. (LifeWorks publication MHIR-CAN-062022). Retrieved September 30, 2022 from https://lifeworks.com/en/media/1467/download?inline
Prochaska, J. O., & DiClemente, C. C. (1982). Transtheoretical Therapy: Toward a More Integrative Model of Change. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 19, 276-288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0088437
Ventola, C. L. (2014). Social Media and Health Care Professionals: Benefits, Risks, and Best Practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(7), 491–520. Retrieved September 30, 2022 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4103576/
Yaribeygi, H., Panahi, Y., Sahraei, H., Johnston, T. P., & Sahebkar, A. (2017). The impact of stress on body function: A review. EXCLI Journal, 16, 1057–1072. https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2017-480
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