The use of Facebook in medical education – A literature review
Open accessAbstract
Background: The vogue of social media has changed interpersonal communication as well as learning and teaching opportunities in medical education. The most popular social media tool is Facebook. Its features provide potentially useful support for the education of medical students but it also means that some new challenges will have to be faced. Aims: This review aimed to find out how Facebook has been integrated into medical education. A systematical review of the current literature and grade of evidence is provided, research gaps are identified, links to prior reviews are drawn and implications for the future are discussed. Method: The authors searched six databases. Inclusion criteria were defined and the authors independently reviewed the search results. The key information of the articles included was methodically abstracted and coded, synthesized and discussed in the categories study design, study participants’phase of medical education and study content. Results: 16 articles met all inclusion criteria. 45-96% of health care professionals in all phases of their medical education have a Facebook profile. Most studies focused on Facebook and digital professionalism. Unprofessional behavior and privacy violations occurred in 0.02% to 16%. In terms of learning and teaching environment, Facebook is well accepted by medical students. It is used to prepare for exams, share online material, discuss clinical cases, organize face-to-face sessions and exchange information on clerkships. A few educational materials to teach Facebook professionalism were positively evaluated. There seems to be no conclusive evidence as to whether medical students benefit from Facebook as a learning environment on higher competence levels. Discussion: Facebook influences a myriad of aspects of health care professionals, particularly at undergraduate and graduate level in medical education. Despite an increasing number of interventions, there is a lack of conclusive evidence in terms of its educational effectiveness. Furthermore, we suggest that digital professionalism be integrated in established and emerging competency-based catalogues.
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Social media has been proven to be used for educational purposes at medical schools, for example to complement university courses.
“SM has been proven to be used for educational purposes at medical schools, for example, to complement university courses [134,135].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [135]
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- Authors
- Pander, T., Pinilla, S., Dimitriadis, K., & Fischer, M. R.
- Affiliations
- LMU Klinikum (DE)
- Venue
- German Medical Science GMS Publishing House
- Publisher
- German Medical Science GMS Publishing House
- Published
- 2014
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- Doc33-Doc33
- PMC
- PMC4152997
- OpenAlex
- W184207538
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 13.15
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- German Medical Science (German Research Foundation) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- German Medical Science (German Research Foundation)
- Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Educational Technology in Learning
- Keywords
- Facebook, social media in medical education, digital professionalism, medical students, online learning, professional conduct, privacy violations, competency-based curriculum, undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education
- MeSH terms
- Attitude of Health Personnel, Clinical Competence, Computer-Assisted Instruction, Curriculum, Education, Medical, Germany, Humans, Students, Medical, Social Media
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