A new wave of urologists? Graduating urology residents’ practices of and attitudes toward social media

Abstract

Introduction: Social media (SoMe) have revolutionized healthcare, but physicians remain hesitant to adopt SoMe in their practices. We sought to assess graduating urology residents' practices of and attitudes toward SoMe.Methods: A close-ended questionnaire, employing five-point Likert scales, was distributed to all final-year residents (n=100) in Canadian urology training programs in 2012, 2014, and 2016 to assess SoMe usage and perceived usefulness. Results: All (100%) questionnaires were completed. Respondents frequently used online services for personal (100%) and professional (96%) purposes. Most (92%) used SoMe. Many (73%) frequently used SoMe for personal purposes, but few (12%) frequently used SoMe for professional purposes. While a majority (59%) opposed direct patient interaction online, most supported using SoMe to provide patients with static information (76%) and collaborate with colleagues (65%). Many (70-73%) were optimistic that novel solutions to privacy issues in online communications will arise, making SoMe and email contact with patients conceivable. Few (2-8%) were aware and had read guidelines and legislations regarding physician online practices; however, awareness of medical associations' and institutional SoMe policies significantly increased over time (p<0.05). Conclusions: Despite their active online use, graduating urology residents rarely used SoMe in professional settings and were wary of using it in patient care. Nevertheless, they were optimistic toward its integration in urology and supported its use in physician-physician communication. Considering SoMe's increased influence on urology and graduating residents' limited awareness of guidelines and legislations, postgraduate medical educators should encourage residents to become more familiar with current online communication recommendations.

Physicians’ Attitude towards The Use of Social Media for Professional Purposes in Saudi Arabia

“…Our results also showed that more than half of the participants (67.3%) did not interact with patients using social media, and 57.5% of the participants did not discuss with patients the social media or the Internet usage. In relation to this matter, similar results have been observed in other investigation in which more than half of the respondents (59%) were opposed to employing social media for patient interaction [32].…”

Information behaviour of the millennial generation: a scoping review of medical residents and their use of social media

“…Bosslet et al (2011), Schweitzer et al (2012), Strausburg, Djuricich, Carlos, and Bosslet (2013), Kesselheim et al (2016), and Jain, Fervaha, Fuoco, and Leveridge (2018)…”

“…When the studies focused on the degree of participation in SM (i.e. in addition to having a profile, offering content or information), the results reflect that the residents are passive users of SM (Jain, Fervaha, Fuoco, & Leveridge, 2018; Maisonneuve, Chambe, Lorenzo, & Pelaccia, 2015). That is, residents more often look at content than provide it (Archambault et al, 2011, 2015).…”

Guideline of guidelines: social media in urology

“…Despite this enthusiasm and dramatic increase in usage, however, barriers exist because of the lack of clarity surrounding the appropriate use of social media within a professional setting. Moreover, despite multiple guidelines on use of social media in urology [7][8][9], fewer than 10% of graduating urology residents were aware of and had read them [10]. This is concerning in light of recent studies showing the unprofessional content present in publicly accessible social media pages for graduating urology residents and junior faculty [11].…”