Facebook and the professional behaviours of undergraduate medical students

Abstract

This research highlights the issue of social networking websites and professionalism amongst medical students. Further guidance from the GMC and medical schools should remind students that images and information placed on social networking sites is in the public domain, and could impact upon their professional reputation and identity.

Perceptions of Unprofessional Social Media Behavior Among Emergency Medicine Physicians

“…[1][2][3] While SM has enhanced many aspects of medical practice, including education, communication, and professional collaborations, 4 it also harbors ethical-and privacy-related risks. Physicians have struggled to reconcile personal expression with privacy and professional boundaries.…”

Online professionalism and Facebook – Falling through the generation gap

“…The medical profession is not immune to the rapidly growing influence of web-based technology that has impacted considerably on how individuals communicate personally and professionally. Other professions are struggling with similar issues (Coutts et al 2007), a potential cause being that interaction in virtual communities has eroded elements of social trust, responsibility and accountability (Garner & O'Sullivan 2010). Most recently, the press association under the Freedom of Information Act obtained figures showing that more than 150 police officers in England and Wales faced disciplinary action over their behaviour on Facebook and one officer was sacked in a three-year period (BBC 2011).…”

Students’ Attitudes Towards Facebook and Online Professionalism: Subject Discipline, Age and Gender Differences

“…Students were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed/disagreed with ten statements measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale looking at their attitudes towards Facebook and online professionalism. Four of the statements were adapted from Garner & O'Sullivan's (2010) study on medical students (Table 1) -questions were worded appropriately for each discipline. Six questions were adapted from the study by Moubarak et al (2011) on medical students; again these were worded according to subject discipline (Table 2).…”

“…Much of the research on students' use of Facebook in terms of online professionalism has focused on medical students (Guseh et al 2009, Finn et al 2010, Garner & O'Sullivan 2010, Moubarak et al 2011. Medical students' use of SNS tends to suggests that students do not alter their default privacy settings leaving them accessible to the public.…”