From USC: "Being the Best We Can Be": Medical Students' Reflections on Physician Responsibility in the Social Media Era

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23269290

Acad Med. 2012 Dec 23. [Epub ahead of print]

"Being the Best We Can Be": Medical Students' Reflections on Physician Responsibility in the Social Media Era.

Lie D, Trial J, Schaff P, Wallace R, Elliott D.

Source

Dr. Lie is clinical professor of family medicine and course director for the Professionalism and the Practice of Medicine course, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Dr. Trial is assistant professor of medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Dr. Schaff is associate professor of clinical pediatrics and family medicine, associate dean for curriculum, and director, Program in Medical Humanities, Arts, and Ethics, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Dr. Wallace is clinical associate professor of obstetrics-gynecology, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. Dr. Elliott is professor of clinical pediatrics and associate dean for student affairs, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

To examine attitudes, self-reported behaviors, and intended actions related to medical students' use of online social media after an educational intervention.

METHOD:

In 2011, 180 first-year medical students at the Keck School of Medicine participated in a required two-hour session on the relevance of online social media use to professionalism. Students submitted postsession written reflections about their online presence and professional roles. The authors qualitatively analyzed and coded these reflections for emerging themes. They also examined postsession evaluations and conducted a four-month follow-up survey to identify changes in students' online social networking behaviors.

RESULTS:

All 180 students submitted written reflections and postsession evaluations. The authors identified 10 theme categories within three domains (immediate action, intended future action, value change) from the reflections. The most common themes were "role awareness" (144/539), "did nothing" (94/539), and "intention to edit" (84/539). On a scale of 1 to 5, students rated the overall session quality at 3.92 (standard deviation 0.28). Sixty-four percent (115/180) of the students responded to the follow-up survey. Of those, 40% (46/115) reported editing or changing their Web presence after the session, and 24% (28/115) anticipated spending less time on online social networking.

CONCLUSIONS:

Attending a required session in a professionalism course led to thoughtful reflection, increased professional role awareness, and intention to edit and monitor future online presence among first-year medical students. After four months, students reported continued monitoring and editing of their online presence. Future studies should examine whether reinforcement throughout training is needed to maintain vigilance.