Social media
resolving tunnel vision in practicing medicine
Keywords:
Social media; Emergency medicine; Smartphone; Medical educationAbstract
Background: With the emergence of social media, physicians who use social media, including emergency medicine physicians, have shared their experiences with their colleagues instead of working alone and keeping their experiences to themselves. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the rate and type of use of electronic online sources and social media, in order to improve learning and education among emergency medicine residents. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out from September 2015 until August 2016 on emergency medicine residents of two main medical universities of Tehran, Iran. A questionnaire was prepared by reviewing the existing studies and asking emergency medicine professors inside and outside Iran for opinions. Census sampling method was applied and all emergency medicine residents were included. The gathered data were analyzed using statistical tests of chi square, Independent-samples t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient via SPSS version 21. Results: Seventy three residents with the mean age of 34.2±5.2 years participated in this study (60.3% female). Smart phone is the most important tool they use for connecting to the Internet. About 30% use the Internet for about 1-2 hours a day. In half of these participants less than 25% of this time is spent on something related to their academic field of study. The correlation of sex (p=0.034) and age (p=0.049) with extent of using social media related to the academic field of study were significant. Other analytical analyses were not statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: In summary, the findings of current study showed that despite sufficient access to proper technology, use of social media and online sources by high majority of the studied EM residents regarding improvement of their learning and educational level is very limited.References
Penuel WR, Sussex W, Korbak C, Hoadley C. Investigating the potential of using social network analysis
in educational evaluation. Am J Eval. 2006; 27(4): 437-51. doi: 10.1177/1098214006294307.
Mangold WG, Faulds DJ. Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Bus Horiz. 2009;
(4): 357-65. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2009.03.002.
Ahn J. The effect of social network sites on adolescents' social and academic development: Current theories
and controversies. J Am Soc Inf Sci . 2011; 62(8): 1435-45. doi: 10.1002/asi.21540.
Ahn J, Bivona LK, DiScala J. Social media access in K‐12 schools: Intractable policy controversies in an
evolving world. Am Soc Inform Sci Annu Meet Proc. 2011; 48(1): 1-10. doi:
1002/meet.2011.14504801044.
McKibbon KA, Fridsma DB. Effectiveness of clinician-selected electronic information resources for
answering primary care physicians’ information needs. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2006; 13(6): 653-9. doi:
1197/jamia.M2087. PMID: 16929042, PMCID: PMC1656967.
Keller B, Labrique A, Jain KM, Pekosz A, Levine O. Mind the gap: social media engagement by public
health researchers. J Med Internet Res. 2014; 16(1): e8. doi: 10.2196/jmir.2982. PMID: 24425670, PMCID:
PMC3906700.
Brown J, Ryan C, Harris A. How doctors view and use social media: a national survey. J Med Internet Res.
; 16(12): e267. doi: 10.2196/jmir.3589. PMID: 25470407, PMCID: PMC4275505.
Jahanshir A, Karimialavijeh E, Sheikh H, Vahedi M, Momeni M. Smartphones and Medical Applications
in the Emergency Department Daily Practice. Emerg (Tehran). 2017; 5(1): e14. PMID: 28286821, PMCID:
PMC5325882.
Moran M, Seaman J, Tinti-Kane H. Teaching, learning, and sharing: How today's higher education faculty
use social media. Babson Survey Research Group. 2011.
Cheston CC, Flickinger TE, Chisolm MS. Social media use in medical education: a systematic review.
Acad Med. 2013; 88(6): 893-901. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e31828ffc23. PMID: 23619071
Eslaminejad T, Masood M, Ngah NA. Assessment of instructors readiness for implementing e-learning in
continuing medical education in iran. Med Teach. 2009; 32(10): e407-12. doi:
3109/0142159X.2010.496006. PMID: 20854145.
Ashrafi-rizi H, Khorasgani ZG, Zarmehr F, Kazempour Z. A survey on rate of media literacy among
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences’ students using Iranian media literacy questionnaire. J Educ Health
Promot. 2014; 3: 49. doi: 10.4103/2277-9531.131939. PMID: 25013842, PMCID: PMC4089109.
Sari-Motlagh R, Ebrahimi S, Nikfallah A, Hajebrahimi S, Shakiba B. Lifelong learning in practice: The age
of discussion through social media. Eur Urol. 2016; 69(6): 1162-3. doi: 10.1016/j.eururo.2016.01.046.
Payne KB, Wharrad H, Watts K. Smartphone and medical related App use among medical students and
junior doctors in the United Kingdom (UK): a regional survey. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2012; 12:
doi: 10.1186/1472-6947-12-121. PMID: 23110712, PMCID: PMC3504572.
Bosslet GT, Torke AM, Hickman SE, Terry CL, Helft PR. The patient–doctor relationship and online
social networks: Results of a national survey. J Gen Intern Med. 2011; 26(10): 1168-74. doi:
1007/s11606-011-1761-2. PMID: 21706268, PMCID: PMC3181288.
Kind T, Genrich G, Sodhi A, Chretien KC. Social media policies at US medical schools. Med Educ Online.
; 15. doi: 10.3402/meo.v15i0.5324. PMID: 20859533, PMCID: PMC2941429.
Odaci H. Academic self-efficacy and academic procrastination as predictors of problematic internet use in
university students. Comput Educ. 2011; 57(1): 1109-13. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2011.01.005.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 knowledge kingdom publishing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.