The first course in the Masters program in Health Sciences is Critical Foundations in Health Disciplines or MHST 601. This course was a great introduction to studying at the Masters level, as I have been out of the academic world for over 9 years. I was scared of the journey I was starting on, as English is my second language and all my previous education including my undergraduate studies were in French. I was pleased with myself that being bilingual, I did not find it as challenging as I thought, but this might be in part due to the fact I work in a solely in the English language.
Curation of Information
Curation of information was a new term for me, so much that I actually had to Google what curation meant and then all of a sudden, I was seeing or hearing the term everywhere. I had never thought of the concept of having a personal digital library to house all of the information I have collected. I was previously using the very basic method of saving all in pdf or word files in folders on my computer (which I still do), but through this course I have used to learn Zotero. I did try using Mendeley but found it less user friendly, and looked elsewhere for another platform. Now, I will admit, I am stuck in my old ways and I’m sure I have not used Zotero to its full potential. I do still prefer having many folders on my computer and saving my information that way, but I now at least am aware of other methods. Zotero was a learning curve, and pushed me outside my comfort zone, outside of what I knew previously. I think as I further continue my studies, I will learn more benefits to using such tools like my Zotero library. I will admit my favorite part of using Zotero was the highlight option that saves it in the document, which makes returning to my work at a later time easy. Again, I prefer my old ways of printing articles and using my trusty highlighter and sticky tabs to keep myself organized, but unfortunately, this is not environmentally friendly. Although I am young in age, and grew up in the digital age, I realized I have some old tendencies. To help my future self in my studies, I will attempt to give Zotero a good look over during the holidays, when I have no school work distraction.
Digital Identity
Our instructor for this course explained the importance of having a digital identity in healthcare in the modern world, and I thought to myself “Is this really necessary?”. And the answer is yes; yes, it is important is today’s world to have a digital professional identity. I have created a website that houses my resume as well as many blog posts and my curated information. This is one platform that houses everything that is important to my values as a healthcare professional. This will be a work in progress for my whole career; as it can be shared digitally with any new networking I will be doing. It has also been a way for me to save and share information I find valuable, as someone else might find it valuable as well. The curation of all of my classmate’s websites/ portfolio’s is also a great way to network and have access to information others have curated. Networking is a valuable tool as a professional, as much as its important that information in your corner, its also important to have other healthcare professionals to discuss with. I found the different articles shared by my classmates to allow me as a Registered Nurse to have a new perspective on different healthcare professions. This newly found and created digital identity of mine will help me present myself to future employers, to other healthcare professionals. I look forward to the possibilities that my Webpage will bring forth to me.
Conclusion
In summary, this course has been challenging in a different way than I ever thought, although also enlightening and educating. I learned new methods of identifying myself as a Registered Nurse, as well as new methods of cultivating and storing information. I was able to explore and create a digital professional identity, to bring forth and to showcase myself as a Registered Nurse. This newly created identity will be useful in all my future endeavours. I look forward to using and applying my new found knowledge and skills to my future studies.
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