A systematic review investigating the use of Twitter and Facebook in university-based healthcare education

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use, attitudes and perceptions of both teachers and students towards social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) in healthcare higher education practice. Design/methodology/approach – Systematic literature review. A search of published and unpublished databases was conducted from January 2000 to January 2013. Data were synthesised through a narrative approach. All included studies were critically appraised using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme appraisal tools. Findings – From a total of 876 papers, 16 publications met the eligibility criteria. The review papers were largely of moderate methodological quality. The results indicated that Facebook and Twitter are perceived as potentially useful adjuncts in healthcare higher education practice. Their use as part of a “blended” approach to classroom teaching has been employed to enhance communication and increase accessibility of students to real-world practices and expertise. Whilst students perceive this to be of value, some have reservations regarding the possibility of faculty members spying or infringing on their “virtual” social community. Faculty members expressed some reservations regarding the perceived boundary between student-staff relationships. Originality/value – This is the first paper to systematically review the literature on the use of social media networking sites in health education. This identified both the potential strengths and weaknesses of using this new technology, and highlights areas to expand knowledge with further research and practice

Social media in nursing and midwifery education: A mixed study systematic review

“…Reviews have summarized social media use in education previously. However, they examined a range of online platforms, defined social media broadly (Bassell, 2010), had limited studies relevant to nursing and midwifery (Smith & Lambert, 2014), or adopted methodologically weak approaches (Arrigoni, Alvaro, Vellone, & Vanzetta, 2016;Gunberg Ross & Myers, 2017). Therefore, a gap exists in our understanding of how effective social media, especially SNSs, could be in supporting learning among nursing and midwifery students.…”

Engaging Learners With Social Media

“…In the academic setting, Smith and Lambert (2014) described Facebook as a platform to engage students. In their systematic review of the literature, they found limited research regarding the use of Facebook for educational purposes.…”

A mixed study systematic review of social media in nursing and midwifery education: Protocol

“…The synthesis efforts to date have typically adopted a sweeping, generalized definition of social media that includes all ranges of technologies, from wikis, to blogs, SNSs, podcasts, and other related online platforms (Bassell, ). Other reviews have limited studies relevant to nursing or midwifery (Smith & Lambert, ) or have applied weak methodological approaches (Arrigoni et al., ). Due to the uniqueness and higher level of communication fidelity afforded by SNSs, it was deemed important to generate a mixed study systematic review exploring the use of this particular form of social media in nursing and midwifery education.…”

“…To date, numerous descriptive articles have been published outlining a large array of social media technology and educational practices in relation to nursing and midwifery (Ashton, 2016;Clifton & Mann, 2011;Schmitt, Sims-Giddens, & Booth, 2012;Stewart, Sidebotham, & Davis, 2012), including more robust studies examining the use of social media in this literature (Booth, 2015;Kitching, Winbolt, MacPhail, & Ibrahim, 2015;Richardson, Grose, Nelmes, Parra, & Linares, 2016;Uppal, Davies, Nuttall, & Knowles, 2016). There has also been some past review efforts completed to synthesize how social media technology has been used to support mentorship activities between nursing faculty (Bassell, 2010); for health professional education in university settings (Smith & Lambert, 2014); and, in nursing education in general (Arrigoni, Alvaro, Vellone, & Vanzetta, 2016). Regardless, there is a current and sizable gap in synthesis of research exploring the efficacy, impact or value of social media in nursing and midwifery education.…”