Online communities of practice as a communication resource for community health nurses working with homeless persons

Ruta Kristina Valaitis · Noori Akhtar‐Danesh · Fiona M Brooks · Sally Binks · Dyanne Semogas

54 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Advanced Nursing

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Knowledge Management and Sharing Health Sciences Research and Education Health Literacy and Information Accessibility

Abstract

AIMS: This study explored community health nurses' viewpoints about a Canadian online community of practice to support their practice with homeless or under-housed populations. BACKGROUND: Community health nurses who specifically work with homeless and marginally housed populations often report feelings of isolation and stress in managing complex problems in resource constraints. To strengthen intra-professional ties and enhance information access, an online community of practice was designed, implemented and evaluated by and for them. METHODS: Q-methodology was used. Sixty-six statements about the community of practice were collected from an online survey and focus groups, refined and reduced to 44 statements. In 2009, sixteen participants completed the Q-sort activity, rating each statement relative to the others. Scores for each participant were subjected to by-person factor analysis. RESULTS: Respondents fell into two groups -tacit knowledge warriors and tacit knowledge communicators. Warriors strongly believed that the community of practice could combat stigma associated with homelessness and promote awareness of homelessness issues, and valued its potential to validate and improve practice. Communicators would have used the community of practice more with increased discussion, facilitation and prompt responses. Generally, nurses viewed the community of practice as a place to share stories, validate practice and adapt best practices to their work context. CONCLUSIONS: Online communities of practice can be valuable to nurses in specialized fields with limited peer support and access to information resources. Tacit knowledge development is important to nurses working with homeless populations: this needs to be valued in conjunction with scientifically based knowledge.

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References

1991Situated Learning 1991Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation 2002Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge 2006Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier 1993A Primer on Q Methodology 2000A Confessional Account of an Ethnography About Knowledge Work1 1935Technique of Factor Analysis 2004Exploring attitudes: the case for Q methodology

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2013Factors That Influence Healthcare Professionals’ Online Interaction in a Virtual Community of Practice 2013Usefulness of a virtual community of practice and Web 2.0 tools for general practice training: experiences and expectations of general practitioner registrars and supervisors 2016Utilizing Communities of Practice to Facilitate Knowledge Sharing in the Digital Age 2019Attitudes Toward Health Care Virtual Communities of Practice: Survey Among Health Care Workers 2016Why We Belong - Exploring Membership of Healthcare Professionals in an Intensive Care Virtual Community Via Online Focus Groups: Rationale and Protocol

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