RehabNurse‐L: An Analysis of the Rehabilitation Nursing LISTSERV Experience

&NA; Computer‐mediated discussion is a form of communication via the Internet through groups known as listservs, chat‐rooms, bulletin boards, newsgroups, or discussion forums. An increasing number of professionals are using these forums to ask and answer common concerns about their practices. Deeper meaning lies within messages that is broader than just an individual posting or a simple communication thread. The messages can have far‐reaching effects. Our purpose in this qualitative research was to understand why RehabNurse‐L LISTSERV® (RehabNurse) participants use the listserv, describe their RehabNurse experiences, how they used information from postings, and their perception of the value of using RehabNurse for their practice. The Rehabilitation Nursing Foundation funded this study. Nurses identified the RehabNurse as a means of “keeping up,” sharing, learning, problem solving, and support within their practice. They appraised the information posted on RehabNurse in search of credible entries as well as experiences similar to their own. Nurse respondents described their RehabNurse involvement in terms of community and connectedness, identifying roles familiar to the participants. RehabNurse postings not only were shared within the discussion group, but also extended to their work environment—team members, peers, administrators, patients, and families.

[1]  N. Baym.  Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community , 1999 .

[2]  P. Murray,et al.  Nurses' Computer‐Mediated Communications on NURSENET: A Case Study , 1996, Computers in nursing.

[3]  H. Bernard,et al.  Data Management and Analysis Methods , 2000 .

[4]  Murray Pj.  Nurses' computer-mediated communications on NURSENET. A case study. , 1996 .

[5]  S. Herring.  Computer-mediated communication : linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives , 1996 .

[6]  D. Porter.  Internet Culture , 1996 .

[7]  Mary E Duffy,et al.  Methodological issues in Web-based research. , 2002, Journal of nursing scholarship : an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

[8]  Quentin Jones,et al.  Virtual-Communities, Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology: A Theoretical Outline , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[9]  Nancy Wyatt,et al.  Group dynamics in an E-mail forum , 1996 .

[10]  McHugh Ba.  Association of Rehabilitation Nurses. , 1979 .

[11]  Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. , 2003, The Kansas nurse.

[12]  G. Eysenbach,et al.  Ethical issues in qualitative research on internet communities , 2001, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[13]  T. Thompson.  You've got mail: rehabilitation nurses on the RehabNurse-L LISTSERV. , 2002 .

[14]  D. Hindman.  The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier , 1996 .

[15]  Geoffrey Z. Liu,et al.  Virtual Community Presence in Internet Relay Chatting , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[16]  L. Bowers,et al.  Constructing international professional identity: what psychiatric nurses talk about on the Internet. , 1997, International journal of nursing studies.

[17]  Susan B. Barnes.  Computer-Mediated Communication: Human-to-Human Communication Across the Internet , 2002 .

[18]  José L. Abdelnour-Nocera.  Ethnography and Hermeneutics in Cybercultural Research Accessing IRC Virtual Communities , 2002, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[19]  R. Lakeman.  The Internet: facilitating an international nursing culture for psychiatric nurses. , 1998, Computers in nursing.

[20]  D. Finfgeld,et al.  THERAPEUTIC GROUPS ONLINE: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNKNOWN , 2000, Issues in mental health nursing.