Assessing the use of social media in physician assistant education

Abstract

Objectives This study aims to assess physician assistant (PA) students’ experiences with social media (SM) as a part of their medical education. Methods The study is split into two phases: Phase 1- A cross-sectional survey emailed to all PA students at four PA school campuses to assess students’ prior SM experiences (226 responses, 71.1% response rate); and Phase 2- Inclusion of SM educational resources, via Twitter, within lectures performed at two PA schools. A phase-2 survey assessed students’ opinions of educational SM (50 responses, 59.5% response rate) and SM usage was tracked. Results The phase-1 survey respondents indicated that 97.3% (n=220) use social media; often used as a part of their education, 65% (n=147) informally and 2.7% (n=6) formally incorporated. Students most commonly use Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, but rarely use Twitter. Currently using SM for medical education was significantly associated with predicting that future PA education will formally include SM [r s =.341 (r 2 =0.12), p=<.001], as did younger age, [r s =.137 (r 2 =0.02), p=0.042]. Of phase-2 survey respondents, 93.1% (27/29) of SM users felt it was a useful addition to the lectures. Significantly more views were captured when messages were sent during lectures Mean (SD), 102.64(39.7) than in the peri-lecture time period [49.5(10.6), p<0.001]. Conclusions Many PA students are currently using various forms of social media to augment their education. Most PA students support formal incorporation of social media into their education. PA educators should consider using our data and methods of social media inclusion when designing curricula and while clinically precepting PA students.

Incorporating social media into physician assistant education: opportunities to benefit patients

“…The electronic survey was sent to all 37 final semester PA students in the fall of 2016, 24 of whom (65%) responded. Similar to Wanner and colleagues, 1 social media utilization among students was high, with all 24 (100%) respondents having engaged in social networking to stay personally connected with family, friends, and other trainees. Social media use for professional purposes was far less common with 7 (29%) having used social media to share medical information; 1 (4%) student was connected with faculty via social networks and 0 with patients or patients’ families.…”

“…We read the recent paper by Wanner and colleagues 1 with interest. The authors surveyed physician assistant (PA) students about their experiences with social media and concluded that educators might formally incorporate the use of social media into curricula designed for PA students to augment more traditional modalities like textbooks and lectures.…”

“…Wanner and colleagues 1 argue that formal inclusion of social media into PA student education was well received because the modality is familiar and engaging for the learners. In Wanner’s study, despite their familiarity with social media, many students felt it should be “an optional adjunct” in their education because of time demands and lack of reliability of online sources 1 . The pervasiveness of social media justifies its use as an adjunct in medical education.…”

Medical student Internet usage: is the literature correct to call it addiction? An opinion piece

“…Among the most relevant aspect of the Internet to this paper is the Internet as a place of work, particularly for medical students. Medical education is rich with research on how the Internet and aspects of it (including methods of e-learning, m-leaning and artefacts such as specific social media) should, can and are to be used by medical students and professionals [ 13 ], [ 14 ], [ 15 ], [ 16 ]. In medical education, the Internet is the meeting place of humans and the information they require for their work.…”

Assessment of the Educational Content of YouTube Videos about Chest Radiograph Interpretation

“…Thus, interpretation of chest radiograph may be a challenging process for the junior physicians as well as the medical students. Consequently, internet resources in medical education may be frequently sought by the students (2). Students may particularly prefer multimedia educational tools for procedures that require learning and practicing visual skills like chest radiograph interpretation.…”