Thou Shalt Not Tweet Unprofessionally
Thou Shalt Not Tweet Unprofessionally
Thirty attendees from 17 different organisations and institutions as well as four countries self-selected to participate in this workshop: 19 attending physicians; 5 resident doctors; 2 non-physician educators; 2 administrators; 1 librarian; and 1 medical student.
The following themes were developed during each phase of the AI process. The main ideas from each group are included in online supplementary appendix A http://pmj.bmj.com/content/91/1080/561/suppl/DC1.
Participants believed the professional use of social media included building trusted online communities for learning, collaboration and to improve education resources. They cited examples of improving productivity (rather than detracting from it) by enabling access to educational resources when they wanted, from whom they wanted and from where they wanted across the world. Social media facilitated personal and professional development including finding mentorship for life choices, networking to build relationships and advocacy for their causes.
Looking ahead, participants envisaged supportive online medical education communities that provide equal opportunity for members to engage, recognise individual successes and leaders, help develop and sustain individual participation and recognise the importance of whole-person online interactions, including attention to individuals' well-beings. They wanted active permissive guidelines used universally not due to fear, but because of the clear benefits of social media, including improved safety and accountability for educators and trainees as well as the support of trusted medical education leaders. The participants thought that the benefits would outweigh risks due to the seamless integration of all social media platforms within their daily lives to increase productivity and well-being. They described how the positive impact would be clear through realised benefits in patient education and access to medical education resources from expertly curated material and the avoidance of unnecessary hierarchy.
To achieve their dreams, participants felt that they needed methods to curate reliable medical education resources. They suggested that it would be effective to include information on using social media for peer reviewing available materials and for developing a system to provide users' and experts' endorsements of these materials. They discussed how the use of resources should be evidence-based, requiring scholarship in social media to develop metrics to assess real-world impact and facilitate continuous quality improvement. The participants described how the development of resources should be guided by education theory (including traditional theory and evolving theory) that may be tested against its impact on learners. These processes would require multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral input, including input from patients, positive guidelines, new leaders in social media, as well as education for educators and trainees on digital literacy.
To ensure that the abovementioned designs are implemented, participants believed that they needed active guidelines. More specifically, they thought that leaders—comprising institutional champions from representative organisations—could draw on positive guidelines to empower individuals and facilitate cultural change with regard to social media. They described how this change could be facilitated by institutions accepting social media for academic advancement, peer review, Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development and performance assessments. Essentially, they discussed how education on social media could be delivered across the continuum of medical education and integrated with accepted frameworks (eg, CanMEDS).
Results
Thirty attendees from 17 different organisations and institutions as well as four countries self-selected to participate in this workshop: 19 attending physicians; 5 resident doctors; 2 non-physician educators; 2 administrators; 1 librarian; and 1 medical student.
The following themes were developed during each phase of the AI process. The main ideas from each group are included in online supplementary appendix A http://pmj.bmj.com/content/91/1080/561/suppl/DC1.
Discovery: Discovery of Best Practices, the Most Positive Trends, Events and Developments on Social Media and Professionalism
Participants believed the professional use of social media included building trusted online communities for learning, collaboration and to improve education resources. They cited examples of improving productivity (rather than detracting from it) by enabling access to educational resources when they wanted, from whom they wanted and from where they wanted across the world. Social media facilitated personal and professional development including finding mentorship for life choices, networking to build relationships and advocacy for their causes.
Dream: Processes That Will Work in the Future
Looking ahead, participants envisaged supportive online medical education communities that provide equal opportunity for members to engage, recognise individual successes and leaders, help develop and sustain individual participation and recognise the importance of whole-person online interactions, including attention to individuals' well-beings. They wanted active permissive guidelines used universally not due to fear, but because of the clear benefits of social media, including improved safety and accountability for educators and trainees as well as the support of trusted medical education leaders. The participants thought that the benefits would outweigh risks due to the seamless integration of all social media platforms within their daily lives to increase productivity and well-being. They described how the positive impact would be clear through realised benefits in patient education and access to medical education resources from expertly curated material and the avoidance of unnecessary hierarchy.
Design: Designing Effective Development Plans, Areas Where We Could Have the Most Impact
To achieve their dreams, participants felt that they needed methods to curate reliable medical education resources. They suggested that it would be effective to include information on using social media for peer reviewing available materials and for developing a system to provide users' and experts' endorsements of these materials. They discussed how the use of resources should be evidence-based, requiring scholarship in social media to develop metrics to assess real-world impact and facilitate continuous quality improvement. The participants described how the development of resources should be guided by education theory (including traditional theory and evolving theory) that may be tested against its impact on learners. These processes would require multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral input, including input from patients, positive guidelines, new leaders in social media, as well as education for educators and trainees on digital literacy.
Delivery: Ensuring Implementation Through Changes That We Can Make to Ensure More People Use Social Media Professionally
To ensure that the abovementioned designs are implemented, participants believed that they needed active guidelines. More specifically, they thought that leaders—comprising institutional champions from representative organisations—could draw on positive guidelines to empower individuals and facilitate cultural change with regard to social media. They described how this change could be facilitated by institutions accepting social media for academic advancement, peer review, Continuing Medical Education/Continuing Professional Development and performance assessments. Essentially, they discussed how education on social media could be delivered across the continuum of medical education and integrated with accepted frameworks (eg, CanMEDS).
