Project Goal and Background Readership Growth Results

www.emergingrnleader.com

Methods

Reader Comments

Blogging as an Innovative Strategy to Develop Emerging Nurse Leaders Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

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The project aim is to engage Generation Y nurses in discussions about nursing leadership with the goal of encouraging them to seek nursing leadership positions. This project has been initiated by the principal investigator as part of a recently funded HRSA AEN grant D09HP22615 to develop emerging nurse leaders through a Masters program in Administration and Financial Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare. Blogs on a variety of nursing leadership topics grounded in

evidence-based findings are published twice each week. Each blog includes a Read to Lead list and access to free

supplementary materials. Readers are encouraged to comment on the blogs. 70% of current blog readers are under the age of 30 according to PEW Foundation Research. Blogs provide a unique opportunity to reach out to a global audience of nurses who may not regularly read nursing journals. Through the installation of analytics programs such as Google analytics, blog authors have access to extensive details about reader search habits and popular blog topics.

• The blog author investigated best practices in blogging and sought help from an internationally known blogging coach.

• An easily accessible self-hosted blog site www.emergingrnleader.com was initiated in October of 2011.

• Based on research about how to best optimize your blog content for search engine discovery, a twice weekly (Monday and Thursday) format was selected with blog content between 600 and 1000 words,

• Leadership Storytelling has been an important strategy used to convey lessons in this blog.

• Two blog analytics programs were installed on the blog site to assess reader usage: Google Analytics and Awstats.

Readership growth to 8000+ unique visitors per month within one year 1000+ readership comments in response to blogs 100 blogs posted on a wide variety of timely leadership topics Blog is incorporated into both academic and continuing education

emerging nurse leader programs. Blog author now a guest columnist for “Leading the Way” in The

American Nurse Today; readers are directed to the blog.

In Response to – How to Develop a Thicker Skin as a Nurse Leader: “Great advise for a novice as well as perfectionists. It is unfortunate that our nature is to hold on to the bad and not believe the good. Perhaps applying these tips will help us learn from our mistakes, move on, and remember that we are all truly and uniquely awesome.” – Manda In Response to – Helping Nurses Cope with Moral Distress: “I work in health care also, and this is a growing problem. The 4 A system is a great approach to trying to manage this issue. It does need to be addressed so that patients can get the proper care they need, and choose!” – Chris In Response to – Coaching our Novice Nurses: “Thank you for this post, it definitely hits home as I am a nursing student expecting to graduate this year. I loved that the very first suggestion was, “Remember what it was like to be a novice nurse.” I also felt that giving hope was great advice – we need to know that things will get easier with time.” – Chelsea In Response to – How to Manage Difficult People: “I enjoyed Dr. Essex’s classifying the 4 different types of difficult personalities, this was something that I hadn’t been exposed to prior in any form of leadership training, so thanks for including it. This was definitely a great addition to your Charge Nurse series… and I giggle as I am reminded that they are also great tips for dealing with unruly teenagers!” – Amy In Response to – Are You a Good Follower? “I found this article very intriguing. It’s not often that people highlight the importance of being a good follower. Great post!” – Jacob