Medical Education Online
ISSN: (Print) 1087-2981 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/zmeo20
Using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb & Hanan Y. Abdurabu To cite this article: Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb & Hanan Y. Abdurabu (2014) Using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research, Medical Education Online, 19:1, 25860, DOI: 10.3402/meo.v19.25860 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v19.25860
© 2014 Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb and Hanan Y. Abdurabu Published online: 16 Oct 2014.
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Date: 28 April 2017, At: 22:37
Medical Education Online
æ
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research f late, the use of social media has spread worldwide and there is a massive number of international users. According to reports from Facebook (1) and Twitter (2) during the second quarter of 2014, the number of active users reached 1.32 billion and 271 million, respectively. That being said, several studies have reported overwhelming responses from medical students using social media networking websites especially Facebook (35). Existing studies indicate a positive correlation between integration of social media into medical education and medical students’ attitudes toward acquiring knowledge and improving their skills (6). In addition, one study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of an online teaching forum suggesting that it may enhance peer-to-peer teaching and answering each other’s queries (7). From a clinical perspective, social media usage can play a central role in promoting awareness of early screening for diseases and in informing patients about the latest treatment or alternatives (8). Medical students’ participation in undergraduate research (UR) is an exceedingly important part of the professionalization process, as students become adept at using the literature, generating innovative ideas, and enhancing their abilities to communicate (9). From our experience at the College of Medicine in Alfaisal University, where students have created a Facebook group to share their experiences and concerns, we believe social media boost medical students’ interest to participate in UR and generate transformative ideas. In addition, there is another Facebook group that ‘gathers’ all medical students in a single, multi-operating platform where junior and senior undergraduates can exchange valuable feedback, advice, and suggestions. To the best of our knowledge, no formal studies have focused on the integration of social media and UR. For this reason, we would like to suggest several ways in which social media might be used to cultivate medical students’ research interests. First, creating a group on a social media website facilitates communication among members of the research project; it also provides a platform whereby mentors can assign tasks, address concerns, and inform project members of the latest developments. Second, another virtual group could be created to guide undergraduate students seeking to create new ideas and start their own projects. This provides a
O
platform for discussion, answering concerns and enabling students to tackle obstacles they face as beginners. Third, medical students can also use the Facebook group created by their corresponding batch to post links to their online-surveys and collect project data and elicit responses from their peers. This may encourage surveybased research to assess medical students’ attitudes and perspectives on education-related topics, for example. Finally, a private UR group can be created to include all medical students where they can share with colleagues their accomplishments, achievements, and outcomes of their research experiences. Ultimately, this exchange may further promote interest in research among trainees of all levels.
Conflicts of interest and funding The authors have not received any funding or benefits from industry or elsewhere to conduct this study. Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb College of Medicine Alfaisal University Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Email: [email protected] Hanan Y. Abdurabu College of Medicine Alfaisal University Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
References 1. Facebook Reports Second Quarter 2014 Results. Available from: http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID 861599 [cited 20 September 2014]. 2. Twitter Reports Second Quarter 2014 Results. Available from: http://investor.twitterinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid 862505 [cited 20 September 2014]. 3. Farooqi H, Patel H, Aslam HM, Ansari IQ, Khan M, Iqbal N, et al. Effect of Facebook on the life of Medical University students. Int Arch Med 2013; 6: 40. 4. White J, Kirwan P, Lai K, Walton J, Ross S. ‘Have you seen what is on Facebook?’ The use of social networking software by healthcare professions students. BMJ Open 2013; 3: pii: e003013. 5. Usher K, Woods C, Casellac E, Glass N, Wilson R, Mayner L, et al. Australian health professions student use of social media. Collegian 2014; 21: 95101.
Medical Education Online 2014. # 2014 Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb and Hanan Y. Abdurabu. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
1
Citation: Med Educ Online 2014, 19: 25860 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v19.25860 (page number not for citation purpose)
Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb and Hanan Y. Abdurabu
6. Cheston CC, Flickinger TE, Chislom MS. Social media use in medical education: a systemic review. Acad Med 2013; 88: 893 901. 7. Ravindran R, Kashyap M, Lilis L, Vivekanantham S, Phoenix G. Evaluation of an online medical teaching forum. Clin Teach 2014; 11: 2748.
2 (page number not for citation purpose)
8. Jones R. Determining patient preferences in using social media. N Am J Med Sci 2014; 6: 239. 9. Oliveira CC, de Souza RC, Abe EH, Silva Mo´z LE, de Carvalho LR, Domingues MA. Undergraduate research in medical education: a descriptive study of students’ views. BMC Med Educ 2014; 14: 51.
Citation: Med Educ Online 2014, 19: 25860 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v19.25860
ISSN: (Print) 1087-2981 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/zmeo20
Using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb & Hanan Y. Abdurabu To cite this article: Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb & Hanan Y. Abdurabu (2014) Using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research, Medical Education Online, 19:1, 25860, DOI: 10.3402/meo.v19.25860 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v19.25860
© 2014 Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb and Hanan Y. Abdurabu Published online: 16 Oct 2014.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 2
View related articles
View Crossmark data
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=zmeo20 Download by: [80.82.77.83]
Date: 28 April 2017, At: 22:37
Medical Education Online
æ
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Using social media to facilitate medical students’ interest in research f late, the use of social media has spread worldwide and there is a massive number of international users. According to reports from Facebook (1) and Twitter (2) during the second quarter of 2014, the number of active users reached 1.32 billion and 271 million, respectively. That being said, several studies have reported overwhelming responses from medical students using social media networking websites especially Facebook (35). Existing studies indicate a positive correlation between integration of social media into medical education and medical students’ attitudes toward acquiring knowledge and improving their skills (6). In addition, one study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of an online teaching forum suggesting that it may enhance peer-to-peer teaching and answering each other’s queries (7). From a clinical perspective, social media usage can play a central role in promoting awareness of early screening for diseases and in informing patients about the latest treatment or alternatives (8). Medical students’ participation in undergraduate research (UR) is an exceedingly important part of the professionalization process, as students become adept at using the literature, generating innovative ideas, and enhancing their abilities to communicate (9). From our experience at the College of Medicine in Alfaisal University, where students have created a Facebook group to share their experiences and concerns, we believe social media boost medical students’ interest to participate in UR and generate transformative ideas. In addition, there is another Facebook group that ‘gathers’ all medical students in a single, multi-operating platform where junior and senior undergraduates can exchange valuable feedback, advice, and suggestions. To the best of our knowledge, no formal studies have focused on the integration of social media and UR. For this reason, we would like to suggest several ways in which social media might be used to cultivate medical students’ research interests. First, creating a group on a social media website facilitates communication among members of the research project; it also provides a platform whereby mentors can assign tasks, address concerns, and inform project members of the latest developments. Second, another virtual group could be created to guide undergraduate students seeking to create new ideas and start their own projects. This provides a
O
platform for discussion, answering concerns and enabling students to tackle obstacles they face as beginners. Third, medical students can also use the Facebook group created by their corresponding batch to post links to their online-surveys and collect project data and elicit responses from their peers. This may encourage surveybased research to assess medical students’ attitudes and perspectives on education-related topics, for example. Finally, a private UR group can be created to include all medical students where they can share with colleagues their accomplishments, achievements, and outcomes of their research experiences. Ultimately, this exchange may further promote interest in research among trainees of all levels.
Conflicts of interest and funding The authors have not received any funding or benefits from industry or elsewhere to conduct this study. Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb College of Medicine Alfaisal University Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Email: [email protected] Hanan Y. Abdurabu College of Medicine Alfaisal University Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
References 1. Facebook Reports Second Quarter 2014 Results. Available from: http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID 861599 [cited 20 September 2014]. 2. Twitter Reports Second Quarter 2014 Results. Available from: http://investor.twitterinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid 862505 [cited 20 September 2014]. 3. Farooqi H, Patel H, Aslam HM, Ansari IQ, Khan M, Iqbal N, et al. Effect of Facebook on the life of Medical University students. Int Arch Med 2013; 6: 40. 4. White J, Kirwan P, Lai K, Walton J, Ross S. ‘Have you seen what is on Facebook?’ The use of social networking software by healthcare professions students. BMJ Open 2013; 3: pii: e003013. 5. Usher K, Woods C, Casellac E, Glass N, Wilson R, Mayner L, et al. Australian health professions student use of social media. Collegian 2014; 21: 95101.
Medical Education Online 2014. # 2014 Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb and Hanan Y. Abdurabu. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
1
Citation: Med Educ Online 2014, 19: 25860 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v19.25860 (page number not for citation purpose)
Abdulrahman A. Al-Khateeb and Hanan Y. Abdurabu
6. Cheston CC, Flickinger TE, Chislom MS. Social media use in medical education: a systemic review. Acad Med 2013; 88: 893 901. 7. Ravindran R, Kashyap M, Lilis L, Vivekanantham S, Phoenix G. Evaluation of an online medical teaching forum. Clin Teach 2014; 11: 2748.
2 (page number not for citation purpose)
8. Jones R. Determining patient preferences in using social media. N Am J Med Sci 2014; 6: 239. 9. Oliveira CC, de Souza RC, Abe EH, Silva Mo´z LE, de Carvalho LR, Domingues MA. Undergraduate research in medical education: a descriptive study of students’ views. BMC Med Educ 2014; 14: 51.
Citation: Med Educ Online 2014, 19: 25860 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/meo.v19.25860
