Australian health professions student use of social media

Abstract

Increased bandwidth, broadband network availability and improved functionality have enhanced the accessibility and attractiveness of social media. The use of the internet by higher education students has markedly increased. Social media are already used widely across the health sector but little is currently known of the use of social media by health profession students in Australia. A cross-sectional study was undertaken to explore health profession students' use of social media and their media preferences for sourcing information. An electronic survey was made available to health profession students at ten participating universities across most Australian states and territories. Respondents were 637 first year students and 451 final year students. The results for first and final year health profession students indicate that online media is the preferred source of information with only 20% of students nominating traditional peer-reviewed journals as a preferred information source. In addition, the results indicate that Facebook® usage was high among all students while use of other types of social media such as Twitter® remains comparatively low.As health profession students engage regularly with social media, and this use is likely to grow rather than diminish, educational institutions are challenged to consider the use of social media as a validated platform for learning and teaching.

Social Media use within medical education: A systematic review to develop a pilot questionnaire on how social media can be best used at BSMS

“…These include points on safeguarding patient privacy, avoiding controversial material and "pausing before posting" (BMA, 2011; Davis, 2015; Hillman and Sherbino, 2015; Parsi and Elster, 2015; Usher et al, 2014). This is in place so the students will reflect on the fact that they are posting in a public domain.…”

“…Amongst users however there were found to be some discrepancies between age groups. Usher et al (2014) found that whilst 93% of first year students used Facebook, the majority of these were aged 16-25 (97%) with only 74% of students aged 45 or over accessing the site. Facebook's influence is steadily growing with most students actively using the site.…”

“…This is problematic as lecturers need to be familiar with what the students are doing and in certain cases even teaching them how to best use social media. Several of the studies proposed how lecturers could achieve this as well as analysing their interactions with the students ( Students are starting to use social media to supplement their learning and some even use it as a primary source of information (Usher et al, 2014). It is therefore important for faculty members to engage with these tools so that they can ensure that the viewed material is both correct and fit for purpose or even highlight high-quality resources to learners (Barry et al, 2016;Walji and Stanbrook, 2015).…”

Social media and professionalism

“…A high proportion of healthcare professionals use social media for personal use. [5][6][7] Others consider social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, as a tool for professional development, as a means of accessing information, marketing practices and services, job opportunities, as well as sharing or adding your opinion on issues of interest to you and to other like-minded individuals online. 8,9 However, other social media research has been conducted that has implications for the profession and the patient-practitioner relationship.…”

Attitudes toward privacy in social network and moral development of nursing students

“…However, there is little empirical investigation documenting that there are many ethical issues that need to be considered when dealing with SNS privacy in nursing. (8) From a business viewpoint, SNSs is a useful online marketing tool because SNSs can collect personal information and can search specific target group. The marketing activities using SNS as an advertising tool promote word-of-mouth marketing.…”