Why is the BMA blogging?

Neil Hallows, BMA views and analysis editor

Facetious answer number one

It’s not

Facetious answer number two

Why not?The internet’s value is that you have

access to information but you also have access to every lunatic out

there who wants to throw up a blog

George Romero, director of zombie films

BMA blogs

for a better class of lunatic™

Take an issue

Service vs training for junior doctors

One way of talking about it...

• “The perennial debate between service and training is hinged upon a somewhat artificial notion, namely that experiences are either of unquestionable formative value or they are so routine to be of no peripatetic benefit..”

(...and so on for another 64 words until the full stop)

...and how we do it in blogs

“Whether an experience is so exciting you phone your Mum, or entirely routine, depends of course on how many times you have done it before. Appendectomies are training gold for a CT1 surgeon but would be pure service delivery for a ST7 who has done hundreds previously.”

Ben Molyneux, JDC chair

In patronising graphic form

Giving context

Three blogs

• The BMA blog – for policy discussions between the BMA and its members

• At work – vivid accounts of day-to-day working conditions, BMA employment relations successes, and guidance on issues like discrimination

• Live and Learn – a place to share formative experiences, and a way to engage new people with the BMA’s work

Live and Learn

How members respond

Readership is good

- Regularly among the top three click-throughsfrom the e-newsletter

- The quantity of comments is still quite low...

BMA blog

July: 5 comments per post

August: 4.7 comments per post

...but their quality can be pretty good

• They address the issues

• Very little spam

• They can provide us with insights as to policy – 57 comments on recent revalidation blog

Why the comments are useful

• They show the BMA is an open and receptive organisation

• They represent a direct line to accountable people in the BMA – a future tweak will enable members to leave their email addresses

• They provide case studies for campaigns and wider publicity

Which blogs do best?

It’s good if they provoke a response

• Big numbers... A blog about a frequently consulting patient - 267 consultations in seven years – unsustainable but not unreasonable in this patient’s case

• Every day dilemmas... A GP mulling over whether to sign a sick note - Does my patient or the truth come first in signing this form?

• A bit of a rant... A doctor whose revalidation had not worked out - I ‘don’t reflect on my practice’. GMC, what do you think I’ve been doing for the last 43 years?

What do we do with them?

• They’re part of an overall comms strategy, and show the BMA wants to not just inform but engage with its members

• They get tweeted, put out on wider social media and included in the e-newsletter

• They can highlight and personalise otherwise quite dry parts of the website

• They can provide information and contacts that we can use in our campaigning

We can help you do it

Drafting

Q&A

Ghosting

Future plans

• Giving members the option of including email addresses on their blog comments so we can contact them more easily

• A blogs landing page

• A ratings function, so people can interact with the blogs without writing a full comment