Featured Project

Storytelling using Twitter

In the CND: A Sim Soap Opera: Episode 1 “Mistakes and Missed Connections”

Description of Project:

A Twitter soap opera created for nurse educators debuted February 8th and ran through February 14, 2010. The main character was Duke’s medical simulation mannequin Stanley, who wrote about love and his medical adventures. In the CND: A Sim Soap Opera was created by the iNet Team and Duke University School of Nursing faculty and staff.

The story is told through two perspectives using two Twitter accounts, inetnurse as the narrator and StanleySim61 as the main character.The audience follows the story using the Twitter hashtag #SimSoap. The pilot episode is both a lovestory and a simulation scenario. The project targets the QSEN learning competencies of patient centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. Using Twitter as the mode of delivery allows for improvisation. Current events and basketball games are incorporated into the story in real time, and the Twitter audience is able to participate, ask questions and make comments using Twitter.

Key Words: narrative, technology, medical simulation, Twitter, social media, QSEN competencies

Possible Uses in Nursing Education:

Nurse educators could use or modify this script in support of a simulation exercise.
Nurse educators could harness the interactive, participatory nature of Twitter (or some other medium) to create ‘decision points’ and/or a branching story.
Students could create a story that highlights specific learning objectives and shows mastery of the content.

Behind the Scenes: The Creation of SimSoap

Video clip of brainstorming session
Jing on how to update the two Twitter accounts (Using the application TweetDeck, how we updated the narrator’s account and Stanley’s account at one time)

Creators/Collaborators

simsoapteam

Left to right: Margie Molloy (Center for Nursing Discovery Simulation Lab manager), Newman Lanier (Instructional Technologist)
Stanley Sim (Duke’s Simulation Mannequin), Mary Barzee (iNet Program Coordinator), Midge Bowers (Cardiac Nurse and DUSON faculty)
(Not pictured) Yvonne Ford (DUSON PhD student)

How We Created SimSoap

In brainstorming sessions we created and modified the story outline
We created the character Stanley giving him traits and a backstory that align with the history of North Carolina
We decided on learning competencies and integrated teaching moments into the story - (i.e. medical errors, etc.)
Mary Barzee wrote the script consulting with all members of the team
We used the iNet nurse Twitter account (which already had 60 followers) as the narrator.
We created a Twitter account with a profile and photo for our main character Stanely
Newman Lanier made sure our SimSoap team had Twitter accounts and knew how to use hashtags and TweetDeck to follow the story
We sent out press releases and E-mails to nurse educators asking them to follow and participate in the project via Twitter
We attempted to add realism to the story incorporating photos, screencaptures, videos, links, and live posts on Craigslist Missed Connections, which helped to drive the love story.
We incorporated improvisation by encouraging participation from the public and secondary characters. Example, MidgetNP was a scripted character who gave Stanley advice, touching on learning competencies. She also sent improvised tweets about sports.
To tie the story together and make it easy to follow, we used the hashtag #SimSoap and requested that it be used by all participants so that the story could unfold publicly.
Mary Barzee sent tweets out from the two accounts (narrator and Stanley) twice a day - adapting the script as necessary to fit the 140 characters of Twitter and incorporating current events and improvised responses to audience and participant questions.
Following the end of the story on Twitter, Margie Molloy planned an open simulation lab for Duke Nursing Students inviting them to meet Stanley and to practice cardiac care scenarios in Duke’s Center for Nursing Discovery