Better tracheostomy care through targeted education using social media

Abstract

The National Tracheostomy Safety Project (NTSP) has published strategies to manage and prevent airway emergencies in patients with tracheostomies and laryngectomies.1,2 However, front-line healthcare professionals most likely to benefit from guidance may not have access to or are unlikely to read publications in traditional medical literature. To improve dissemination of such guidelines, The Health Foundation launched Evidence into Practice in 2017. The NTSP’s aim for this project was to produce assessable, digestible resources, and target and influence relevant front-line staff via social media platforms. The NTSP engaged a social media marketing and production company (FeedFirst Ltd.) to produce short (<2 min) videos around key tracheostomy themes, coupled with a branding exercise. The themes were the following: (i) problems can be prevented by basic care, done well; (ii) emergencies can be managed by following NTSP algorithms; and (iii) vocalisation should be a routine goal of daily care. A marketing campaign was devised to target key staff groups (ICU nurses, ENT nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists, speech therapists, doctors, and hospital managers) identified via social media profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. Strategies included themed events, paid advertising, and encouraging peer-to-peer sharing of resources. Engagement metrics were captured using social media listening tools from January 1, 2018 to March 31, 2018. A total of 629 270 social media impressions of new NTSP video and infographic resources were captured, including over 267 000 Twitter impressions, 275 430 Facebook impressions, 82 880 YouTube video views (over 80 000 min watched; Fig. 7), and 3960 LinkedIn impressions. Only 85 000 (31.8%) of the Twitter impressions resulted from paid advertising, demonstrating significant social mobilisation around the content, and peer-to-peer sharing. By developing high-quality, professional content to convey key safety messages and targeting front-line staff via native and promoted social media activity, we have demonstrated an effective reach of our resources to target staff. In comparison, the NTSP paper underpinning this project had been cited only 89 times since publication in 2012. We recommend considering a similar social media marketing strategy to target key staff for similar educational projects in the future. The authors would like to thank Health Foundation, an independent UK charity for better health and health care. 1.McGrath BA, Bates L, Atkinson D, et al. Anaesthesia 2012; 67: 1025–412.McGrath BA, Lynch J, Bonvento B. BMJ Qual Improv Rep 2017; 6 (1). bmjqir.u220636.w7996