title: Using blogs for facilitating and connecting nurse educator candidates.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Social media includes blog applications, which can be used as online journals or diaries that encourages interaction and collaboration within an online community. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the use of blog writing as learning journals during a short course for nurse educator candidates about social media.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative descriptive design was used. The participants were nurses, Bachelor, Master's and Doctoral students who intended to follow a career in education (N=24, female n=21, male n=3, Mean age 37) from four different countries of the European Union. The blogs written during the course were used as a data collection method and the data was analyzed with qualitative content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 260 blogger posts and 372 peer comments were analyzed. Four main categories emerged from the analysis: 1) Course content, new knowledge, and changed views, 2) Reflection and critical thinking, 3) Encouraging and peer support and 4) Expressing feelings, experiences, and expectations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Blogs are potential learning spaces in short courses in nurse educator education, especially in sharing feelings and experiences, enhancing an encouraging atmosphere, critical thinking, and reflection.
authors.affiliation: Cyprus University of Technology, Department of Nursing, Limassol, Cyprus. Electronic address: e.papastavrou@cut.ac.cy.
authors.forename: Evridiki
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Papastavrou
authors.affiliation: University of Turku, Department of Nursing Science, 20014 Turku, Finland. Electronic address: anloka@utu.fi.
authors.forename: Lotta
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hamari
authors.affiliation: Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: pfuster@csc.uic.es.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fuster
authors.affiliation: Klaipeda University, Faculty of Health Science, Klaipeda, Lithuania. Electronic address: natalja.istomina@ku.lt.
authors.forename: Natalja
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Istomina
authors.affiliation: University of Turku, Department of Nursing Science, 20014 Turku, Finland. Electronic address: leena.kaarina.salminen@utu.fi.
authors.forename: Leena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Salminen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D057218:Blogging; D004644:Emotions; D005060:Europe; D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010379:Peer Group; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013850:Thinking
keywords: Blog analysis; Blogging; Nurse educator candidate; Qualitative descriptive study; Social media