Towards a collaborative learning environment for children’s pain management: leveraging an online discussion forum

Effective management of pediatric pain requires proactive and effective collaboration between health practitioners from a variety of health disciplines. This article investigates the merits of a collaborative learning environment to address the knowledge gaps experienced by a community of pediatric pain practitioners. We present a knowledge management solution that leverages an online discussion forum as a collaborative learning environment rooted in team members sharing experiences, offering support to solve problems, guiding members to information/knowledge resources, informing peers about clinical practice guidelines, and simply seeking advice on matters pertaining to pediatric pain management. Team interactions, via the discussion forum, will be captured and represented as a social network to provide useful insights into the dynamics of team collaboration and to identify the patterns of knowledge flow amongst the team members.

[1]  P. Benner.  From novice to expert. , 1984, The American journal of nursing.

[2]  Caroline Haythornthwaite,et al.  Collaborative work networks among distributed learners , 1999, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers.

[3]  D. Carr,et al.  Why study pain? A qualitative analysis of medical and nursing faculty and students' knowledge of and attitudes to cancer pain management. , 2002, Journal of palliative medicine.

[4]  E. Bruera,et al.  Symptomatic Hypocalcemia after Intravenous Pamidronate , 1996, Journal of palliative care.

[5]  Caroline Haythornthwaite,et al.  Studying Online Social Networks , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[6]  John Scott.  What is social network analysis , 2010 .

[7]  M. Eraut.  Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. , 2000, The British journal of educational psychology.

[8]  Meliha Handzic,et al.  Managing Knowledge through Experimentation and Socialisation , 2000, Practical Aspects of Knowledge Management.

[9]  Joseph J. Pear,et al.  A social constructivist approach to computer-mediated instruction , 2002, Comput. Educ..

[10]  M. Lynn.  Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences , 1996 .

[11]  J. Brown,et al.  Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation , 1991 .

[12]  N. Lin,et al.  Social structure and network analysis , 1985 .

[13]  Andrew Parker,et al.  Knowing What We Know: Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Social Networks , 2001 .

[14]  Vimla L. Patel,et al.  Electronic communication and collaboration in a health care practice , 1998, Artif. Intell. Medicine.

[15]  Kathryn DiPietro.  The Effects of a Constructivist Intervention on Pre-Service Teachers , 2004, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[16]  Linda C. Hodges,et al.  From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice , 1986 .

[17]  S. Debowski.  Knowledge Management , 2005 .

[18]  Myounghee Kang,et al.  A Conceptual Framework for a Web-based Knowledge Construction Support System. , 2000 .

[19]  R. Pace,et al.  The Contributions of Knowledge Management to Workplace Learning , 2002 .

[20]  Y. Cheah,et al.  The role of information technology in the explication and crystallization of tacit healthcare knowledge , 2001 .

[21]  Paris Pm.  Pain management in the child. , 1987 .

[22]  Syed Sibte Raza Abidi,et al.  Knowledge Management in Pediatric Pain: Mapping On-Line Expert Discussions to Medical Literature , 2004, MedInfo.

[23]  Jean-Paul A. Barthès,et al.  Knowledge Management , 1994, Encyclopedia of Database Systems.

[24]  I. Koren,et al.  Assessment and management of children's pain in community hospitals. , 1995, Journal of advanced nursing.

[25]  K. G. Wallace,et al.  Staff nurses' perceptions of barriers to effective pain management. , 1995, Journal of pain and symptom management.

[26]  Children's experiences of pain in an accident and emergency department. , 1995, Accident and emergency nursing.

[27]  Mark S. Granovetter.  T H E S T R E N G T H O F WEAK TIES: A NETWORK THEORY REVISITED , 1983 .

[28]  R. McAdam,et al.  A Critique Of Knowledge Management: Using A Social Constructionist Model , 2000 .

[29]  A. Serban,et al.  Overview of Knowledge Management , 2002 .

[30]  P. McGrath,et al.  Attitudes and Beliefs about Medication and Pain Management in Children , 1996, Journal of palliative care.