Purpose Professional identity (PI) formation occurs over time through immersive social—digital and in-person—interactions. While digital social interactions may support the PI formation of medical students, their influence remains underexplored. This study aimed to describe the patterns and intensity of social media use and analyze its association with PI.
Methods This quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted at a private medical school in Jakarta, Indonesia. All undergraduate medical students were invited to participate in this study. Data were collected using the Social Networking Activity Intensity Scale (SNAIS) and the MacLeod Clark Professional Identity Scale (MCPIS-9) questionnaire. Data were analyzed descriptively and statistically.
Results A total of 451 students participated in this study. Participants reported moderate overall social media use intensity (mean SNAIS=2.96±0.51), with higher use for entertainment than social interaction. The mean MCPIS-9 score was 3.76±0.44. Content engagement, measured using a content engagement index (CEI) reflecting the intensity of engagement with educational and informational content across selected social media activities, was generally low and driven mainly by browsing behaviors (CEI=0.51±0.64). Weak but significant correlations were observed between CEI and MCPIS-9 (ρ=0.139, p=0.003) and between SNAIS and MCPIS-9 (r=0.102, p=0.030). One-way analysis of variance revealed significant differences in MCPIS-9 scores by duration of use for WhatsApp and X, but not for other platforms.
Conclusion Participants mainly used social media for entertainment purposes. Social media use intensity and content engagement showed weak but significant associations with PI.
The increasing use of social media among medical doctors and students has raised concerns about the issues related to professional behaviors in online environment. This study examines the current global guidelines on social media use for medical doctors to inform the development of such framework for Vietnamese medical doctors. A narrative review was conducted through manual searches of the official websites of national medical governing bodies. Thematic analysis was conducted on the documents to identify key principles and themes. As results, 10 guidelines, including one from World Medical Association and nine from governing bodies in nine countries were reviewed. Five key common themes were identified, including patient confidentiality, privacy, and dignity; information appropriateness; professional boundary, doctor-patient relationship, public trust; practitioner’s privacy; and health advocacy. These perspectives should be reflected together with Vietnamese cultural context when developing guidelines on professional use of social media for medical doctors in Vietnam. Detailed practical examples, clear expectations, potential disciplinary actions, and guidance on the beneficial use of social media should be included as essential components of the guidelines.
Purpose This study explores how to design a flipped classroom for a predental science course and evaluate its course through student self-assessment in order to provide practical implications for flipped learning in an undergraduate level. Methods: Second- and third-year predental students in the Seoul National University School of Dentistry enrolled in Biodiversity and Global Environment, a 15-week, three-credit course based on a flipped learning model. At the end of the course, the students were asked to rate their self-directed learning, attitude toward social media, discussion skills, learning readiness, and class satisfaction. Out of the 82 predental students, 61 (74.3%) answered the survey. Pearson correlation and multivariate regression analyses were employed to examine the relationship between the self-rated measurements and the performance scores. Results: The majority of the students felt somewhat more prepared than the medium level before the class (mean score of 3.17 out of 5.00), whereas they expressed relatively low preference concerning social media use and attitude (mean score of 2.49). Thus, it was found that learning readiness was significantly associated with both discussion skills and class satisfaction. In particular, multivariate regression analysis confirmed that learning readiness had a significant influence on learning outcomes. Conclusion: This study offered insights into how to design a flipped learning course in terms of predental students’ preference and their learning readiness. Although learning success in a flipped classroom depends on the students’ self-perceived level of preparedness, much still remains to be achieved in order to apply social media benefits in a flipped learning context.
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Methods This cross-sectional study administered validated questionnaires to medical students from different universities in Saudi Arabia, via emails, Twitter, Facebook, and short message service. A non-probability sampling technique was utilized and a sample size of 381 students was arrived at, using 95% confidence interval and 5% margin of error, since the total number of medical students in Saudi Arabia is approximately 36,000. The total respondents were 657 students from 23 different Saudi Arabian medical schools (females: 60.5%, n=397; males: 39.5%, n=260).
Results The questionnaires of 21% of the students (n=139) were excluded from the analysis since they were incomplete. The most common website used by both genders was YouTube (42.3%, n=185); however, males preferred using Twitter and Wikis (p=0.001). With regard to utilizing SM for learning, 95.8% (n=419) of the students believed that it is beneficial. Females stated that SM helps them link basic and clinical science (p=0.003).
Conclusion Medical schools need to improve the utilization of SM by their faculty and students by developing activities and encouraging the usage of SM in education.
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