Social Media Tools for the Development of Pre-Service Health Sciences Researchers during COVID-19 in Pakistan.

Muhammad Zaheer Asghar,Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen,Seema Arif,Javed Iqbal

doi:10.3390/ijerph19010581

Abstract

The development of health sciences researchers has immense significance during a pandemic to control, manage, and prevent future outbreaks of the disease. This study focused on the use of social media tools (SMT) among pre-service health sciences researchers to complement their research competencies (RCT) and research completion levels (RC) during COVID-19. This study used the Vitae research development framework (RDF) to measure research competencies as a mediator between the use of social media tools and research completion levels among post-graduate health sciences students. A cross-section survey research approach was adopted to collect data from the post-graduate students (n = 410) enrolled in health sciences departments at universities in Pakistan. The SmartPLS 3.3.8 software was used to analyze data through Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that different social media tools such as communication, information management, and multimedia have a direct influence on the research competencies of the pre-service researchers and have an indirect effect on the research completion levels. Health sciences institutions may devise social-media-based instructional strategies to develop post-graduate students’ research competencies, such as personal effectiveness, research governance, and research engagement, to help them compile their research and complete their degree program in time during an emergency.

Highlights

The social chaos of COVID-19 affected all segments of society, especially the education sector [1]
This study has focused on the effect of the use of social media tools on the development of research competencies and research completion for health sciences students during COVID-19
This study used a cross-sectional survey research approach to collect the data on social media tools, research competencies, and the research completion process from the students enrolled in health science programs in the universities of Pakistan

Summary

Introduction

The social chaos of COVID-19 affected all segments of society, especially the education sector [1]. It had a drastic effect on the world economy. Higher education across the world has turned topsy-turvy. Higher education is the source of the knowledge economy; its continuation was an enormous challenge. Medical and health workers as well as students were at the forefront in the fight against COVID-19; their education, their timely completion of research, has been drastically affected [2]. The education and research in health sciences during pandemics are of utmost importance [3] for two reasons: first, to prepare health researchers against the pandemic; and, second, for research that contributes to the prevention and cure of a pandemic. Online healthcare services through online- and social-media-based resources were already being practiced by health care professionals, and were further catalyzed due to COVID-19 [4]

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion