Comparative assessment of attitudes among medical and dental professionals in Saudi Arabia toward e-professionalism using the SMEPROF-S scale

Abstract

Background: Social media (SM) usage is on the rise among health professionals at all levels to align with the emerging digital and SM era. e-Professionalism is described as attitudes and actions that resemble traditional professionalism paradigms but are expressed through digital media. Although there are a number of studies conducted in the past several years measuring e-professionalism of medical and dental professionals, there is no validated scale to assess the level of e-professionalism among medical and dental professionals in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess attitudes toward e-professionalism among medical and dental professionals in Saudi Arabia using the SMePROF-S scale. Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited 338 medical and dental students and practitioners from 20 cities in Saudi Arabia to complete an online SMePROF-S self-reported questionnaire measuring attitudes about e-professionalism. Results: Among participants, 31.66% believed that it is acceptable to communicate with patients through SM, but only 16.86% agreed with communicating via personal SM account messaging. Many participants (35.80%–50%) fear that SM use can cause problems with getting hired, people making inaccurate assumptions and perceptions, and job losses. There were 31.36% who believed that sharing patient information without consent is acceptable. The majority (63.02%–63.31%) do not believe that medical/dental professionals should be barred from using SM, and 40.53% believe that schools/organizations have no right to interfere with their online activities. Only 22.19% believed that SM use removed professional protections from the public. A few statements were statistically different by specialty and gender. Conclusion: There is a variability of attitudes about e-professionalism among medical and dental professionals in Saudi Arabia, with some alarming issues requiring national guidelines to ensure patient rights, privacy, and confidentiality.