Integrating Geriatrics Knowledge into a Medical Student Clerkship Using Twitter Poll

Abstract

A controlled, prospective, 2‐year cohort observational study was conducted to test whether weekly geriatric questions delivered through Twitter Poll could improve geriatrics knowledge during an internal medicine clerkship for third‐year medical students. Pre‐ and post‐rotation test results used a modified University of California, Los Angeles geriatric knowledge test that included questions linked to 26 Association of American Medical Colleges geriatric competencies for medical students. Data were analyzed using a general linear model repeated‐measure design and Student t‐test. The primary outcome showed that Twitter Poll participants had more than twice the geriatrics knowledge (p = .002) than students who did not use Twitter Poll. Subset analysis showed different test performances according to sex (p = .03), training site (p = .002), and cohort (p = .003). This study is the first demonstration of Twitter Poll efficacy in medical education and raises questions about whether it could be even more effective if linked to spaced timing of didactic content or supported by annotated answers to geriatrics questions. J Am Geriatr Soc 66:2389–2393, 2018.

Social media in undergraduate medical education: A systematic review

“…Types of knowledge and skill development included information acquisition and retention, 32‐44 reflection 45‐47 and professionalism 40,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57 . Supporting curricular activities ranged from enhancing student engagement, 58‐68 reducing student anxiety with the taught material 69‐71 to improving communication between faculty and students 69,72,73,74 and between students themselves outside of the classroom 38,69,75,76 .…”

“…38,69,75,76 Many interventions were evaluated to assess student opinions and attitudes towards inclusion of SoMe within their medical curriculum. 8,14,34,49,70,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87 Privacy was a focus of 28/58 (48%) SoMe interventions with the use of closed gro ups, 32,45,48,68,70,72,74,75,87,88 private communication platforms such as WhatsApp and WeChat 14,33,34,35,36,37,38,50,51,60,62,66,78,80,81,82,83 and even a bespoke institution-specific SoMe platform. 53 16/58 (28%) studies involved case-based or problem-based learning.…”

“…Subjective improvements in students' self-reported performance 56,60,63,123,124 and objective increases in assessment outcomes 33,35,38,40,69,82,125 were reported, including in two studies with controlled designs. 32,80 However, it is unclear whether the differences found in the latter two studies result from the use of SoMe or other confounding variables such as weekly assessment 32 or earlier exposure to educational material. 80 Some studies showed that the rate of utilisation of SoMe positively correlated with test score, 37,39,69 however, others suggested time spent on SoMe had no impact on knowledge improvement.…”

Integrating an Interprofessional Geriatric Active Learning Workshop Into Undergraduate Medical Curriculum

“…Our findings build on previous work that has demonstrated improvements in knowledge, clinical skills, and empathy among undergraduate and graduate medical trainees. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] In particular, studies designed to evaluate the perceptions of medical and pharmacy students have demonstrated a positive influence of interprofessional activities with respect to geriatric medicine. Shrader et al 23 described an in-home interview and medication history activity with local volunteers, in which students were assessed on attitudes toward other health professionals before and after the experience, demonstrating gains in the importance in collaboration.…”

Opinion: Is Twitter a New Way to Learn?

“…Recently, Geriatrics Twitter Poll was harnessed for improving Geriatrics knowledge among third year medical students. Students who accessed the Geriatrics Twitter Poll improved their Geriatrics knowledge 2 fold over those who did not use Twitter [6]. Other uses include professional societies that create temporary Twitter accounts to make announcements at their annual scientific meetings while attendees Tweet comments about scientific presentations.…”