ABSTRACT
Electronic mail or e-mail is one of the most popular, hence most used services on the Internet. As a student of healthcare following a course in a college of higher education or university, after you have registered with your institution’s computing services to use their network(s) you will automatically receive an e-mail account. This will not only enable you to send and receive text messages to and from almost anyone in the world who has an e-mail account, but you will also be able to send drawings, software, letters prepared using a wordprocessor, documents or reports compiled from a spreadsheet program and so on. They will (nearly always) reach their destination within minutes of being sent. Once you have started to use e-mail, you may find that it becomes your preferred method of communication. Health professionals, too, are beginning to recognise the advantages electronic mail has over other forms of sending or receiving written messages. As Information Systems become more evident in hospital trusts, e-mail will become an integral part of it. The knowledge and skills needed to use this electronic system efficiently are not difficult to learn. Many of your fellow students have already mastered the basics. As long as you are prepared to invest some time and effort, you too can enjoy the benefits of this new technology. This Unit explains the principles of e-mail, discusses issues associated with this system and looks into how to operate Simeon mail-one of the email programs you are most likely to encounter in educational establishments.
