# The Role of an Intraorganizational Digital Community in Shaping Nurses’ Professional Identities and Practice: Qualitative Interview Study

## TL;DR

This study explores how a digital community for nurses in Israel influenced their professional identities and work practices through interviews.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into how intraorganizational digital communities affect nurses' professional development and sense of community.

## Key findings

- The digital community fostered a strong sense of belonging and emotional support among nurses.
- Active participation was linked to enhanced professional knowledge and self-efficacy.
- Challenges included information overload and maintaining a professional image online.

## Abstract

In 2017, Israel’s health organizations established intraorganizational social media communities, believing that they would serve as a tool that would enable people to share experiences across regional boundaries. However, conducting preliminary studies and analyzing the findings to determine how they affected employees’ experience was never part of this effort.

This study examined the impact of an intraorganizational digital community on nurses’ professional identities and practices within a large health care organization.

Using a qualitative descriptive approach, semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 nurses from various specialties and regions participating in an intraorganizational nurses’ community on Facebook.

The findings showed that the intraorganizational community fostered a strong sense of belonging, emotional support, and professional development among its members. Participants talked about having a sense of community, much like being a member of a family, where they could confide in one another, ask for help and advice, and receive support. Enriched professional knowledge, self-efficacy, and pride in the nursing profession were all associated with active involvement in the community. The complex interactions of social media use in a hierarchical health care system were emphatically acknowledged by addressing challenges, including information overflow and concerns about sustaining a professional persona in a public digital domain.

Overall, the study illustrated how crucial it is for health care organizations to actively manage potential negative consequences while using the benefits of intraorganizational digital networks, such as improving supportive relationships and ongoing shared learning. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge regarding the crossroad between social media and health care, offering insights into developing strategies to promote a supportive and connected nursing workforce. The implications are particularly relevant for organizations seeking to strengthen nurse well-being and professional development through innovative digital tools. Future research should include quantitative studies to assess an intraorganizational platform’s influence on outcomes such as nurses’ sense of community, professional identity, self-efficacy retention, and job satisfaction.