Pediatric Dental Residency Program Directors' Perspectives on and Use of Social Media for Resident Selection and Education.

Abstract

Residency programs are increasingly using social media for a variety of purposes. The aim of this study was to assess the views of U.S. pediatric dental residency program directors on their programs' participation in social media and use of social media in resident selection and education. This cross-sectional study used an electronic survey sent to all 89 U.S. program directors in 2018 to assess the use of social media and obtain demographic information. Forty-six surveys were completed, for a 52% response rate. Regarding resident selection, 76% of the responding directors said their programs did not conduct any online assessment of residency candidates, although 51% responded that social media postings could influence their decisions. For resident education, 78% said their programs did not provide training in challenges posed to evidence-based dentistry by social media, yet 89% expressed concern about the influence of expert opinions via social media on clinical decision making. Regarding participation in social media, 50% of respondents said their programs used social media to promote the program. These results point to a need for further evaluation of possible knowledge and behavior gaps among residency program directors and for development of formal social media assessment and education models for use in pediatric dentistry and other residency programs.