Assessing the use of social media in physician assistant education.

Gregory K. Wanner,Andrew W. Phillips,Dimitrios Papanagnou

doi:10.5116/ijme.5c14.ef82

Abstract

ObjectivesThis study aims to assess physician assistant (PA) students’ experiences with social media (SM) as a part of their medical education. MethodsThe study is split into two phases: Phase 1- A cross-sectional survey emailed to all PA students at four PA school campuses to assess students’ prior SM experiences (226 responses, 71.1% response rate); and Phase 2- Inclusion of SM educational resources, via Twitter, within lectures performed at two PA schools. A phase-2 survey assessed students’ opinions of educational SM (50 responses, 59.5% response rate) and SM usage was tracked. ResultsThe phase-1 survey respondents indicated that 97.3% (n=220) use social media; often used as a part of their education, 65% (n=147) informally and 2.7% (n=6) formally incorporated. Students most commonly use Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, but rarely use Twitter. Currently using SM for medical education was significantly associated with predicting that future PA education will formally include SM [rs=.341 (r2=0.12), p=<.001], as did younger age, [rs=.137 (r2=0.02), p=0.042]. Of phase-2 survey respondents, 93.1% (27/29) of SM users felt it was a useful addition to the lectures. Significantly more views were captured when messages were sent during lectures Mean (SD), 102.64(39.7) than in the peri-lecture time period [49.5(10.6), p<0.001]. Conclusions Many PA students are currently using various forms of social media to augment their education. Most PA students support formal incorporation of social media into their education. PA educators should consider using our data and methods of social media inclusion when designing curricula and while clinically precepting PA students.

Highlights

The majority of today’s physician assistant (PA) students education.[3,4,6,7,8,9,10] A 2016 systematic review indicated nursing have been immersed in internet-based technologies since students use social media to “enhance students’ confidence”early childhood.[1]
Phase 1 Survey Of the 226 respondents, most have at least one social media account, most commonly Facebook followed by Instagram (Table 2)
Facebook was the most commonly used social media educational resource followed by YouTube (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

The majority of today’s physician assistant (PA) students education.[3,4,6,7,8,9,10] A 2016 systematic review indicated nursing have been immersed in internet-based technologies since students use social media to “enhance students’ confidence”. Early childhood.[1] Social media (SM) is an extension of those and engage in peer-learning.[7] Resident physicians appear to technologies. The term “social media” encompasses several use social media— Twitter, podcasts, and blogs—. Aspects of electronic communication and collaboration in- to enhance their education through the rapid dissemination cluding blogs (e.g., Blogger), micro-blogs (e.g., Twitter), so- of evidence-based information, according to a recent systemcial networking (e.g., Facebook), video-sharing

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion