Perception of social media behaviour among medical students, residents and medical specialists
Open accessAbstract
Introduction Behaviour is visible in real-life events, but also on social media. While some national medical organizations have published social media guidelines, the number of studies on professional social media use in medical education is limited. This study aims to explore social media use among medical students, residents and medical specialists. Methods An anonymous, online survey was sent to 3844 medical students at two Dutch medical schools, 828 residents and 426 medical specialists. Quantitative, descriptive data analysis regarding demographic data, yes/no questions and Likert scale questions were performed using SPSS. Qualitative data analysis was performed iteratively, independently by two researchers applying the principles of constant comparison, open and axial coding until consensus was reached. Results Overall response rate was 24.8%. Facebook was most popular among medical students and residents; LinkedIn was most popular among medical specialists. Personal pictures and/or information about themselves on social media that were perceived as unprofessional were reported by 31.3% of students, 19.7% of residents and 4.1% of medical specialists. Information and pictures related to alcohol abuse, partying, clinical work or of a sexually suggestive character were considered inappropriate. Addressing colleagues about their unprofessional posts was perceived to be mainly dependent on the nature and hierarchy of the interprofessional relation. Discussion There is a widespread perception that the presence of unprofessional information on social media among the participants and their colleagues is a common occurrence.
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In Pronk et al's study of all levels of medical professionals, all investigated groups perceived information or pictures related to alcohol abuse, partying, and sexually suggestive posts to be unprofessional, creating a dissonance between the #medbikini movement's perception of professionalism and collected data.
“In a recently published paper by Pronk et al [163] that studied all levels of medical professionals (students, residents, and specialists), the authors found that all investigated groups perceived information or pictures to be unprofessional related to alcohol abuse, partying, and sexually suggestive posts, creating a dissonance between the #medbiniki movement’s perception of professionalism and”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [163]
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- Authors
- Pronk, S. A., Gorter, S. L., Van Luijk, S. J., Barnhoorn, P. C., Binkhorst, B., & Van Mook, W. N. K. A. V. M.
- Affiliations
- Maastricht University Medical Centre (NL)
- Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
- Maastricht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Pronk, Sebastiaan A.
- Venue
- Perspectives on Medical Education
- Publisher
- Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
- Published
- 2021-04-07
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 215-221
- ISSN
- 2212-2761 (ISSN-L)
- 2212-277X
- PMC
- PMC8368941
- OpenAlex
- W3142381732
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 2.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Perspectives on Medical Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- social media use, professional conduct, medical students, medical residents, specialist physicians, Facebook, LinkedIn, interprofessional relations, medical education
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Perception, Schools, Medical, Social Behavior, Students, Medical, Social Media
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