The Willingness of Medical Students to Use Facebook as a Training Channel for Professional Habits: The Case of Influenza Vaccination

Abstract

The low acceptance of influenza vaccination by both medical students and healthcare workers (HCWs) signals the need for innovative strategies. We administered an anonymous questionnaire to 410 University of Barcelona medical students who were asked about using the Internet to find information on influenza vaccination of HCWs and about their willingness to use technical and informal Facebook pages as an information channel on this topic. Of the 410 participants, 74.1 percent were female and 58.3 percent were in the first preclinical 3-year university cycle. A total of 7.6 percent participants reported using the Internet for queries on influenza vaccination, 89.8 percent reported that they were Facebook users, and 275 (67.1 percent) would accept an invitation from the technical or informal Facebook pages. The technical Web site would be actively followed by 77, or by 30.0 percent of those who would accept the invitation and the informal site by 116 (43.6 percent of those who would accept). The marked willingness to use Facebook to obtain information on the influenza vaccination of HCWs potentially opens a new window in health education: social networks could be used to help create professional habits. Students would be more likely to engage with this type of Facebook page if the contents were informal rather than highly technical.

Interventions to Improve Adolescent Vaccination

“…Surprisingly, exposure to "positive" blogs had no effect when compared with controls. This work, combined with that focused on vaccination in other populations, [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74] supports the notion that web-based social media can play a powerful role in mediating vaccination intentions and decisions.…”

Effectiveness of interventions that apply new media to improve vaccine uptake and vaccine coverage

“…29,30 Of the studies, 68% (n = 13) had an experimental study design, the rest were observational studies. In particular, we considered seven randomized controlled trials, 26,[31][32][33][34][35][36] five non-randomized trials, 27,30,37-39 three cross-sectional studies, 29,40,41 one case-control study, 42 and three studies that we considered to have an operational research approach. 37,43,44 Studies' sample size ranged from 50 to 9213 subjects (median = 341).…”

“…[26][27][28][29][30]34,42 Internet is a potential useful tool to deliver interventions aimed at increasing community demand for immunizations, mainly through education and communication, 27,29,30,34,42 reminder/recall systems 28 and client-held medical records. 26 Included studies focused on how and how frequently internet was used to retrieve information on immunization 29,42 and how such information would positively or negatively influence immunization decision making.…”

“…[26][27][28][29][30]34,42 Internet is a potential useful tool to deliver interventions aimed at increasing community demand for immunizations, mainly through education and communication, 27,29,30,34,42 reminder/recall systems 28 and client-held medical records. 26 Included studies focused on how and how frequently internet was used to retrieve information on immunization 29,42 and how such information would positively or negatively influence immunization decision making. 27,30,34,42 In particular, some studies generally explored the rate of net surfing to seek immunization-related information, 29,[40][41][42] while others focused on the role of specific immunization campaign websites and personalized portals, 26,27,29,30,34 blogs 34 and social media such as Youtube 27 and Facebook.…”

The Use of Facebook Among Seventy-seven Departments of Anesthesia in United States Medical Schools

“…Social network sites may also be an effective strategy for the health education of medical students [10] as well as resident education [11], especially since 85% of residents in ACGME programs have smartphones [12]. Facebook accounts are common among health science students (64-96%) and 13-47% of health care providers have an account [13].…”