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      Who’s misbehaving? Perceptions of unprofessional social media use by medical students and faculty

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          Abstract

          Background

          Social media use by physicians offers potential benefits but may also be associated with professionalism problems. The objectives of this study were: 1) to examine and compare characteristics of social media use by medical students and faculty; 2) to explore the scope of self- and peer-posting of unprofessional online content; and 3) to determine what actions were taken when unprofessional content was viewed.

          Methods

          An anonymous, web-based survey was sent to medical students and faculty in October, 2013 at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York.

          Results

          Three-quarters of medical students reported using social media “very frequently” (several times a day), whereas less than one-third of faculty did so ( p < .001). Medical students reported using privacy settings more often than faculty (96.5 % v. 78.1 %, p < .001). Most medical students (94.2 %) and faculty (94.1 %) reported “never” or “occasionally” monitoring their online presence ( p = 0.94). Medical students reported self-posting of profanity, depiction of intoxication, and sexually suggestive material more often than faculty ( p < .001). Medical students and faculty both reported peer-posting of unprofessional content significantly more often than self-posting. There was no association between year of medical school and posting of unprofessional content.

          Conclusion

          Medical students reported spending more time using social media and posting unprofessional content more often than did faculty.

          Electronic supplementary material

          The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0572-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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          Most cited references15

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          Online posting of unprofessional content by medical students.

          Web 2.0 applications, such as social networking sites, are creating new challenges for medical professionalism. The scope of this problem in undergraduate medical education is not well-defined. To assess the experience of US medical schools with online posting of unprofessional content by students and existing medical school policies to address online posting. An anonymous electronic survey was sent to deans of student affairs, their representatives, or counterparts from each institution in the Association of American Medical Colleges. Data were collected in March and April 2009. Percentage of schools reporting incidents of students posting unprofessional content online, type of professionalism infraction, disciplinary actions taken, existence of institution policies, and plans for policy development. Sixty percent of US medical schools responded (78/130). Of these schools, 60% (47/78) reported incidents of students posting unprofessional online content. Violations of patient confidentiality were reported by 13% (6/46). Student use of profanity (52%; 22/42), frankly discriminatory language (48%; 19/40), depiction of intoxication (39%; 17/44), and sexually suggestive material (38%; 16/42) were commonly reported. Of 45 schools that reported an incident and responded to the question about disciplinary actions, 30 gave informal warning (67%) and 3 reported student dismissal (7%). Policies that cover student-posted online content were reported by 38% (28/73) of deans. Of schools without such policies, 11% (5/46) were actively developing new policies to cover online content. Deans reporting incidents were significantly more likely to report having such a policy (51% vs 18%; P = .006), believing these issues could be effectively addressed (91% vs 63%; P = .003), and having higher levels of concern (P = .02). Many responding schools had incidents of unprofessional student online postings, but they may not have adequate policy in place.
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            The patient-doctor relationship and online social networks: results of a national survey.

            The use of online social networks (OSNs) among physicians and physicians-in-training, the extent of patient-doctor interactions within OSNs, and attitudes among these groups toward use of OSNs is not well described. To quantify the use of OSNs, patient interactions within OSNs, and attitudes toward OSNs among medical students (MS), resident physicians (RP), and practicing physicians (PP) in the United States. A random, stratified mail survey was sent to 1004 MS, 1004 RP, and 1004 PP between February and May 2010. Percentage of respondents reporting OSN use, the nature and frequency of use; percentage of respondents reporting friend requests by patients or patients' family members, frequency of these requests, and whether or not they were accepted; attitudes toward physician use of OSNs and online patient interactions. The overall response rate was 16.0% (19.8% MS, 14.3% RP, 14.1% PP). 93.5% of MS, 79.4% of RP, and 41.6% of PP reported usage of OSNs. PP were more likely to report having visited the profile of a patient or patient's family member (MS 2.3%, RP 3.9%, PP 15.5%), and were more likely to have received friend requests from patients or their family members (MS 1.2%, RP 7.8%, PP 34.5%). A majority did not think it ethically acceptable to interact with patients within OSNs for either social (68.3%) or patient-care (68.0%) reasons. Almost half of respondents (48.7%) were pessimistic about the potential for OSNs to improve patient-doctor communication, and a majority (79%) expressed concerns about maintaining patient confidentiality. Personal OSN use among physicians and physicians-in-training mirrors that of the general population. Patient-doctor interactions take place within OSNs, and are more typically initiated by patients than by physicians or physicians-in-training. A majority of respondents view these online interactions as ethically problematic.
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              Ethical Issues of Social Media Usage in Healthcare.

              Social media, web and mobile technologies are increasingly used in healthcare and directly support patientcentered care. Patients benefit from disease self-management tools, contact to others, and closer monitoring. Researchers study drug efficiency, or recruit patients for clinical studies via these technologies. However, low communication barriers in socialmedia, limited privacy and security issues lead to problems from an ethical perspective. This paper summarizes the ethical issues to be considered when social media is exploited in healthcare contexts.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (718) 430-4101 , elizabeth.kitsis@einstein.yu.edu
                felise.milan@einstein.yu.edu
                hillel.cohen@einstein.yu.edu
                dan.myers@einstein.yu.edu
                patrick.herron@einstein.yu.edu
                mimi.mcevoy@einstein.yu.edu
                jweingar@montefiore.org
                marti.grayson@einstein.yu.edu
                Journal
                BMC Med Educ
                BMC Med Educ
                BMC Medical Education
                BioMed Central (London )
                1472-6920
                18 February 2016
                18 February 2016
                2016
                : 16
                : 67
                Affiliations
                [ ]Departments of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 USA
                [ ]Epidemiology & Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 USA
                [ ]Family & Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 USA
                [ ]Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 USA
                [ ]Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 USA
                Article
                572
                10.1186/s12909-016-0572-x
                4757980
                26887561
                6a17a2e6-7fa1-4b24-bb2e-92fd794811f8
                © Kitsis et al. 2016

                Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 16 May 2015
                : 2 February 2016
                Categories
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                © The Author(s) 2016

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