Social media in professional medicine: new resident perceptions and practices
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: For younger generations, unconstrained online social activity is the norm. Little data are available about perceptions among young medical practitioners who enter the professional clinical arena, while the impact of existing social media policy on these perceptions is unclear. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the existing perceptions about social media and professionalism among new physicians entering in professional clinical practice; and to determine the effects of formal social media instruction and policy on young professionals' ability to navigate case-based scenarios about online behavior in the context of professional medicine. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study involving the new resident physicians at a large academic medical center. Medical residents from 9 specialties were invited to participate and answer an anonymous questionnaire about social media in clinical medicine. Data were analyzed using SAS 9.4 (Cary, NC), chi-square or Fisher's exact test was used as appropriate, and the correct responses were compared between different groups using the Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance. RESULTS: Familiarity with current institutional policy was associated with an average of 2.2 more correct responses (P=.01). Instruction on social media use during medical school was related to correct responses for 2 additional questions (P=.03). On dividing the groups into no policy exposure, single policy exposure, or both exposures, the mean differences were found to be statistically significant (3.5, 7.5, and 9.4, respectively) (P=.03). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, a number of young physicians demonstrated a casual approach to social media activity in the context of professional medical practice. Several areas of potential educational opportunity and focus were identified: (1) online privacy, (2) maintaining digital professionalism, (3) safeguarding the protected health information of patients, and (4) the impact of existing social media policies. Prior social media instruction and/or familiarity with a social media policy are associated with an improved performance on case-based questions regarding online professionalism. This suggests a correlation between an instruction about online professionalism and more cautious online behavior. Improving the content and delivery of social media policy may assist in preserving institutional priorities, protecting patient information, and safeguarding young professionals from online misadventure.
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It is suggested that there is a link between being educated about professionalism and displaying more cautious behaviors online.
“It is suggested that there is a link between being educated about professionalism and displaying more cautious behaviors online (35).”
From Identifying social media professionalism competencies in Vietnamese medical students: a modified Delphi method (2026) · cites this paper as [35]
Prior social media instruction or familiarity with a social media policy were associated with improved performance on case-based questions regarding online professionalism.
“Prior SM instruction or familiarity with an SM policy were associated with improved performance on case-based questions regarding online professionalism.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [88]
Lower rates of social media use were seen in practicing health care professionals, physicians of different specialties, and program directors or faculty, mostly ranging from 50% to 80%.
“Lower rates of use were seen in practicing HCPs, physicians of different specialties, and program directors (PDs) or faculty, mostly ranging from 50% to 80% [35,39,74,80,83,85,86,88,89,91,96,105,106,108,110,113,114].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [88]
The Methods describe a study of new residents across nine specialties, and the Results report that 86% had a social media account. Our copy does not report social-media-use rates of 50%–80% for practicing health care professionals, other physicians, program directors, or faculty, or compare their rates with residents’ (searched for those groups and the stated range). (LLM, conf=0.76)
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References 23 · Cited by 88
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [10]Rosenstiel T Sonderman J Loker K American Press Institute 2015 03 16 2015-10-01 American Press Insitute Digital Lives of Millennials http://www.webcitation.org/6f6InTqaa
- Authors
- Lefebvre, C., Mesner, J., Stopyra, J., O'Neill, J., Husain, I., Geer, C., Gerancher, K., Atkinson, H., Harper, E., Huang, W., & Cline, D. M.
- Affiliations
- Wake Forest University Health Sciences (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lefebvre, Cedric
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Medical Internet Research
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications Inc.
- Published
- 2016-06-09
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- e119
- ISSN
- 1438-8871 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4919547
- OpenAlex
- W2414622991
- Cited by
- 88
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 53 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 6.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Medical Internet Research (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- 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, medical residents, professionalism, social media policy, online privacy, protected health information, institutional policy, online behavior, medical education
- MeSH terms
- Professionalism, Humans, Internship and Residency, Perception, Prospective Studies, Telemedicine, Social Media
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