Defining a Mismatch: Differences in Usage of Social Networking Sites Between Medical Students and the Faculty Who Teach Them

Several studies demonstrated a generation gap in social media use, where students are more likely than faculty to use social media.

“Several studies demonstrated a “generation gap” in SM use, where students are more likely than faculty to use SM [114,115,117,118].”

Medical students were more likely than faculty to ignore harmful postings by colleagues (25% vs 7%).

“Medical students were more likely than faculty to display content they would not want patients to see (57% vs 27%), report seeing inappropriate content on colleagues’ SNS profiles (64% vs 42%), and ignore harmful postings by colleagues (25% vs 7%) [114].”

Medical students were more likely than faculty to display content they would not want patients to see (57% vs 27%).

“Medical students were more likely than faculty to display content they would not want patients to see (57% vs 27%), report seeing inappropriate content on colleagues’ SNS profiles (64% vs 42%), and ignore harmful postings by colleagues (25% vs 7%) [114].”

Faculty were more likely than students to have been approached by patients on social networking sites (53% vs 3%).

“Brisson et al [114] found that faculty were more likely than students to have been approached by patients on SNSs (53% vs 3%).”

Medical students were more likely than faculty to report seeing inappropriate content on colleagues' social networking site profiles (64% vs 42%).

“Medical students were more likely than faculty to display content they would not want patients to see (57% vs 27%), report seeing inappropriate content on colleagues’ SNS profiles (64% vs 42%), and ignore harmful postings by colleagues (25% vs 7%) [114].”

Even if institutions have social media policies or guidelines, health care professionals acknowledged reluctant behavior regarding existing social media policies or ignorance of their existence.

“Contrary to that finding, even if institutions have SM policies or guidelines, HCPs acknowledged reluctant behavior regarding existing SM policies [78,85,114] or ignorance to their existence [61,64,65,100].”

Half of medical students and faculty were unaware of existing institutional social media guidelines.

“A lack of awareness of existing institutional SM policies was also observed for physiotherapists; 41.6% were not aware whether there was one or not [85], and half of the medical students and faculty were unaware of existing institutional SM guidelines [114].”

Age difference in the term older and wiser, meaning more cautious about posting unprofessional behavior online, was proven in studies comparing students' and faculties' online behavior.

“Age difference in the term “older and wiser,” meaning more cautious about posting unprofessional behavior online, was proven in studies comparing students’ and faculties’ online behavior [114,118].”

Surveys that captured students' self-report of posted unprofessional behavior reported witnessing the investigated examples with varying frequencies.

“Surveys that captured students’ self-report of posted unprofessional behavior (eg, evidence of being intoxicated, illegal drug use, posting patient information, sharing clinical images inappropriately, and depictions of an illegal act) reported witnessing the investigated examples with varying frequencies [32,42,43,55,59,62,64,73,114,118].”

The perception of unprofessional behavior varies among health care professionals, mostly associated with age of the participants.

“Our previous findings demonstrate that the perception of unprofessional behavior varies among HCPs, mostly associated with age of the participants [86,109,114,118].”

Even if institutions have social media policies or guidelines, health care professionals acknowledged reluctant behavior regarding existing social media policies or ignorance to their existence.

“Our results show that even though a lack of SM policies was recognized as a barrier, even if institutions have SM policies or guidelines, HCPs acknowledged reluctant behavior regarding existing SM policies [78,85,114] or ignorance to their existence [61,64,65,100].”