Nursing Knowledge-Sharing in Mobile Social Networks as a Means of Professional Dynamic Interactions: A Qualitative Content Analysis

Background: Nurses play a key role in maintaining and promoting community health; therefore, they need to constantly upgrade and update their professional knowledge through knowledge management process. Nowadays, knowledge-sharing within social networks is considered as a modern and effective strategy for the co-creation of new knowledge that would not be possible without the active participation of the members. The present study aimed to examine experiences of nursing knowledge-sharing in social networks based on smartphones. Methods: This was a qualitative content analysis conducted between 2017 and 2019 in Tehran, Iran. Participants were eighteen nurses from virtual communities in social network platforms and included nursing-related virtual specialty groups. They were selected by purposive sampling and sampling continued until data saturation was achieved. Strategy of data collection included in-depth and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using Landman and Grenheim method with the aid of MAXQDA 10 software. Results: During the data analysis, six main categories emerged, including: a) “The emergence of virtual communities”, b) “Professional setting”, c) “Professional Virtual Communities”, d) “Dynamic interactions”, e) “Organizing and advancing” and f) “Outcomes of interaction in virtual communities”. Data analysis indicated that the main concern of nurses was professional advancement which encouraged them to create and join virtual communities to share knowledge. Dynamic interactions were also the main phenomenon studied. Conclusion: This study provided a better and deeper understanding of the phenomenon of sharing nursing knowledge in virtual communities based on smartphones. The acquired concepts can be used in creating professional virtual communities as well as diagnosing their complications