Change in the perception of medical students about the usefulness and importance of social media in their training and their future work after receiving a specialized training course

Abstract

Social media can be an excellent tool in the training of future doctors, but also in their future work. For this, future health professionals should know basic concepts such as "personal brand" or know how to manage the privacy settings when sharing certain information in their personal profiles. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in the perception and knowledge of medical students comparing the results of a survey before and after receiving a specialized training course. Issues such as whether they would be willing to put their personal accounts on their curriculum vitae or to hire erasure services in the network that minimize their fingerprint. During the 2016-17 academic year a 2-hour course was taught by a sixth-year student and social networking expert. One week before the course and one month later an online survey of 16 questions was conducted and the results compared. The previous (pre) survey was answered by 107 students, while the post (post) survey was answered by 72. After the course, one of the first results was an increase in the number of students who knew social networks specialized in Medicine. There are no significant changes in the way networks use, but there is an increase in the concern to publish reliable and proven medical information. An undesirable effect of the course is that there was an increase in the concern about a possible negative effect on their future of the information they share in social networks, which can be positive because, despite this, there is an increase in the Number of students who would add their user on social networks in their curriculum. There is also an increase in the number of students who affirm that social networks can be useful in their current training and in their future work, also in the knowledge of basic concepts as personal brand. In conclusion, a brief course on basic concepts of social media and their applications in Medicine improves the students' concern about the related knowledge and about the potential positive in both their training and their future work. For this reason, social media should be included in curriculum design in Medicine and, probably, in other university degrees.