On the "Cutting Edge" of Tweeting



When I started on Twitter it was just because it was new and everyone else was doing it. It quickly became too time consuming to keep up with all of the new social media platforms. Between life, school and work, I did not put much stock in the usefulness of the social media craze.

The idea of using, not just Twitter but other social media platforms, to engage in quality professional development, adds a new justification to the effectiveness and appeal of Twitter and the others.

Over the past week, I have added multiple surgical hashtags to my TweetDeck and have found them to be very useful. Since I am actively engaged in my profession of surgical technology and surgical technology education, I have found much use in following these Tweets.

One of the first things that I found was links to many medical and surgical videos. These can be very helpful for professionals, students and educators. There is one in particular that I follow and that is @MedicalVids.

I have also found that these hashtags are used by employers looking to hire a surgical technologist. This is a great resource for my graduates as they look for employment in their filed. The hashtags I use are #surgicaltech, #surgtech, #surgery, #SurgicalTraining and #gamification.

Probably the most striking thing for me as a surgical technologist, is that these hashtags and Tweets show a tremendous level of excitement and pride in the profession. The people that are tweeting, want people to know what they do and show how cool it is.


I follow mostly surgical hashtags because that is my focus, yet I am always looking to improve my abilities as an educator. That is why I follow #gamification. I find it interesting and hope to get some ideas for my class.

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