Earlier I shared a post about how Eddy Joe Gutierrez stays on top of the critical care literature. I mentioned that I also use social media/podcasts/blogs/etc to help me stay on top of things and promised a little more later.
So, I put literature in quotes in the title, because a lot of people don’t consider this sort of thing to be “the literature.” And in the strictest sense of the word, it’s not. However, in 2022, we can learn a lot about the current state of critical care research and practice from these non-traditional sources (hence the entire raison d’etre of this blog). Many of the podcasts, blogs, etc out there cite sources for their information, it’s not just “expert opinion.” And, these tools make it easy to digest info in 2 main ways: crowdsourcing and enabling on-to-go learning.
Crowdsourcing, if you’re not familiar, is the concept of getting input from a variety of people in order to answer a question or deal with a problem. It’s the 21st century version of sharing the work. Social media is a great way to crowdsource your literature review. Because there are so many critical care professionals out there on Twitter, Instagram, etc., and they can all post about the latest literature that interests them. By following a wide variety of people, you can get posts about a wide variety of interests in easily digestible bites.
The other huge benefit to this is the on-the-go nature of this medium. I’m busy. I’m sure you are too. I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and read a journal. But, I do have time to listen to a podcast (more on that in a bit). I can also listen while doing other things. My favorites are to listen during my commute, while mowing my yard, and while walking my dog. I used to listen a lot at the gym as well, but find that I can’t focus as well, so I reserve those for podcasts about things I don’t have to concentrate on (typically topics I already know and just need some refreshing on). I also have time to scroll through Twitter or Instagram while I drink my coffee in the morning. These posts are short and I can bookmark anything interesting to look at later.
OK, this post is getting a bit longer that my usual, and I’ve got a lot more to add, so I’ll save the nuts and bolts of how I manage all of this for next time.
critical care notes 