Social media as a learning tool for healthcare professionals: is it really possible?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i15.22371Keywords:
Social media; Healthcare professional; Online learning; Online education; Medical education.Abstract
The aim of this study is to stimulate discussion about the potential of social media as an important learning tool for healthcare professionals through a critical review of the literature. We conducted a critical brief review of the literature published from 2010 to 2021 in PubMed, using the search terms "social media", "healthcare professional", "online learning", "online education", and "medical education", and some variations according to MeSH. Besides the Pubmed database, searches were conducted through the website https://mededu.jmir.org/. Many healthcare professionals use social media to find and share health information, communicate with colleagues and trainees, advertise their clinical practices, engage in health advocacy, impact health policy decisions, exchange developments in their fields, and publicize their research. However, this is still a topic without established conclusions. Although many studies describe social media as important tools to improve the learning of health students regarding communication, professionalism and ethics, limitations related to health information found in social media are the lack of quality and reliability. In conclusion, we recognize the numerous potential strengths of social media as educational tools, but many points are still unclear and need to be persistently understood, evaluated, and discussed.
References
Abbas, N. & Ojha, U. (2019). Not Just a Medical Student: Delivering Medical Education Through a Short Video Series on Social Media. JMIR Med Educ, 5(1):e11971
Alabdulkareem, S. A. (2015). Exploring the Use and the Impacts of Social Media on Teaching and Learning Science in Saudi. Procedia Soc Behav Sci, 182, 213-224.
Alanzi, T. & Al-Habib, D. K. (2020). The Use of Social Media by Healthcare Quality Personnel in Saudi Arabia. J Environ Public Health. 2020:1417478.
Carpenter, J. P.; Morrison, S. A.; Craft, M.; Lee, M. (2020). How and why are educators using Instagram? Teach Educ. 96:103149.
Chan, W. S. Y. & Leung, A. Y. M. (2020). Facebook as a Novel Tool for Continuous Professional Education on Dementia: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. J Med Internet Res, 22(6), e16772.
Chen, B. & Bryer, T. (2012). Investigating instructional strategies for using social media in formal and informal learning. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(1), 87-104.
Cheston, C. C., Flickinger, T. E., Chisolm, M. S. (2013). Social Media Use in Medical Education: A Systematic Review. Acad Med, 88, 893–901.
Chen, J. & Wang, Y. (2021). Social Media Use for Health Purposes: Systematic Review. J Med Internet Res, 23(5):e17917.
D’souza, F., Shah, S., Oki, O., Scrivens, L., Guckian, J. (2021). Social media: medical education’s double-edged sword. Future Healthc J, 8(2): e307–e310.
El Bialy S., & Jalali, A. (2015). Go Where the Students Are: A Comparison of the Use of Social Networking Sites Between Medical Students and Medical Educators. JMIR Med Educ. 1(2):e7.
Hanson, C., West, J., Neiger, B., Thackeray, R., Barnes, M. & McIntyre, E. (2013). Am J Health Educ, 42(4), 197-204.
Kalia, G. (2013). A Research Paper on Social media: An Innovative Educational Tool. Issues Ideas Educ, 1, 43-50.
Katz, M. & Nandi, N. (2021). Social Media and Medical Education in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scoping Review. JMIR Med Educ, 7(2):e25892.
Madanick, R, D, (2015). Education Becomes Social: The Intersection of Social Media and Medical Education. Gastroenterology, 149(4), 844–847.
Moorhead, S. A., Hazlett, D. E., Harrison, L., Carroll, J. K., Irwin, A. & Hoving, C. (2013). A New Dimension of Health Care: Systematic Review of the Uses, Benefits, and Limitations of Social Media for Health Communication. J Med Internet Res, 15(4):e85.
Moran, M., Seaman, J. & Tinti-Kane, H. (2011). Teaching, Learning, and Sharing: How Today’s Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media. Babson Survey Research Group.
Paes, S. T., Scapim, S. N., Lade, C. G., Moura, H. B., Oliveira, H. Z., Coelho, F. D., Soares, R. & Neto, M. E. C. N. (2021). Is it possible to teach good health practices using social media? Research, Society and Development, 10(12).
Paton, C., Bamidis, P., Eysenbach, G., Hansen, M. M. & Cabrer, M. (2011). Experience in the Use of Social Media in Medical and Health Education. Yearb Med Inform, 6, 21-29.
Pirraglia, P. A. & Kravitz, R. L. (2012). Social Media: New Opportunities, New Ethical Concerns. J Gen Intern Med, 28(2), 165–166.
Pizzuti, A. G., Patel, K. H., Mccreary, E. K., Heil, E., Bland, C. M., Chinaeke, E., Love, B. L. & Bookstaver, P. B. (2020). Healthcare practitioners' views of social media as an educational resource. PLoS One. 15(2): e0228372.
Raut, V. & Patil, P. (2016). Use of Social Media in Education: Positive and Negative impact on the students. International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication, 4(1), 281-285.
Selwyn, N. (2012). Social Media in Higher Education. The Europa World of Learning 2012.
Siddiqui, S. & Singh, T. (2016). Social Media its Impact with Positive and Negative Aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, 5(2), 71-75.
Ventola, C. L. (2014). Social Media and Health Care Professionals: Benefits, Risks, and Best Practices. PT, 39(7), 491-499, 520.
Wilkinson, A. & Ashcroft, J. (2019). Opportunities and Obstacles for Providing Medical Education Through Social Media. JMIR Med Educ, 5(2):e15297.
Wong, X. L. & Liu, R. C.; Sebaratnam, D. F. (2019). Evolving role of Instagram in #medicine. Intern Med J, 49(10), 1329-1332.
Zepke, N. & Leach, L. (2010). Improving student engagement: Ten proposals for action. Active Learning in Higher Education, 11(3) ,167–177.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Carlos Gabriel de Lade; Helder Barra de Moura; Helder Zimmerman de Oliveira; Fernanda Dias Coelho; Marcionilo Euro Carlos Neto; Raphael Soares; Santiago Tavares Paes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
