Social media and medical professionalism: rethinking the debate and the way forward

This Perspective addresses the growing literature about online medical professionalism. Whereas some studies point to the positive potential of social media to enhance and extend medical practice, the dominant emphasis is on the risks and abuses of social media. Overall evidence regarding online medical professionalism is (as with any new area of practice) limited; however, simply accumulating more evidence, without critically checking the assumptions that frame the debate, risks reinforcing negativity toward social media. In this Perspective, the author argues that the medical community should step back and reconsider its assumptions regarding both professionalism and the digital world of social media. Toward this aim, she outlines three areas for critical rethinking by educators and students, administrators, professional associations, and researchers. First she raises some cautions regarding the current literature on using social media in medical practice, which sometimes leaps too quickly from description to prescription. Second, she discusses professionalism. Current debates about the changing nature and contexts of professionalism generally might be helpful in reconsidering notions of online medical professionalism specifically. Third, the author argues that the virtual world itself and its built-in codes deserve more critical scrutiny. She briefly summarizes new research from digital studies both to situate the wider trends more critically and to appreciate the evolving implications for medical practice. Next, the author revisits the potential benefits of social media, including their possibilities to signal new forms of professionalism. Finally, the Perspective ends with specific suggestions for further research that may help move the debate forward

Social Media in the Dental School Environment, Part A: Benefits, Challenges, and Recommendations for Use

Social media consist of powerful tools that impact not only communication but relationships among people, thus posing an inherent challenge to the traditional standards of who we are as dental educators and what we can expect of each other. This article examines how the world of social media has changed dental education. Its goal is to outline the complex issues that social media use presents for academic dental institutions and to examine these issues from personal, professional, and legal perspectives. After providing an update on social media, the article considers the advantages and risks associated with the use of social media at the interpersonal, professional, and institutional levels. Policies and legal issues of which academic dental institutions need to be aware from a compliance perspective are examined, along with considerations and resources needed to develop effective social media policies. The challenge facing dental educators is how to capitalize on the benefits that social media offer, while minimizing risks and complying with the various forms of legal constraint

Enhancing project-related behavioral competence in education

The workforce has increasingly been demanding an educational model that produces students experienced in real project management (PM) practices. This includes producing technically competent students--one who can manage real-world project constraints of cost and schedule but also possess critical project related behavioral competence. Such soft skills are essential if a project is to run smoothly and eventually succeed. In this paper, we describe an educational framework grounded in outcomes based education to enhance project-related behavioral competence. Instructors can leverage this framework to augment their existing courses and develop the critical career skill sets of graduating students

On the edge: ICT and the transformation of professional legal education

Information and communications technology in professional legal education courses is perceived as problematic for teachers and course designers. It is so not because technology is inherently difficult or strange, but because at a deep level it can threaten the practice and identity of teachers. However the contextual challenges of their position, caught between academy and practice, may actually enable professional legal educators to take account of new technologies. The article discusses this proposal, using the example of the incremental development of a discussion forum. It suggests that the tools of pragmatist and transformative meta-theory may point the way forward for professional legal educators to create their own community of practice in the use of ICT in professional legal learning

Don’t be stupid : The role of social media policies in journalistic boundary-setting

This document is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Journalism Studies on 9 May 2018, available online via: https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2018.1467782 Under embargo until 9 November 2019.Social media are now firmly embedded in professional newsrooms, and policies and guidance within these newsrooms have evolved to include social media activities. These policies articulate and expose the underlying assumptions of the role of these new media within the traditional boundaries of the newsroom. Through thematic analysis of the policies of 17 news organizations, this research identifies and explicates the ways in which professional news organizations have moved and reinforced the boundaries of newswork to both include social media, and to bring social media under its control—to the extent of requiring newsworkers to subsume their personal online identities under their professional ones. The research identifies a number of areas of further research, including analysis of compliance with these policies and resistance to them on the part of newsworkers.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Service Learning Enhances Conceptual Learning in a RN to BSN Program

A qualitative study using transcript analysis was conducted to examine the effectiveness of service learning in enhancing conceptual learning in RN to BSN students. As part of their capstone course in an online program, students engaged in 64 hours of service learning in their local community. The transcripts of asynchronous discussions and journal entries formed the data for analysis. The findings illustrated that the student’s conceptual understanding was enhanced from the service learning experience. Further, the students demonstrated higher-level thinking by linking concepts that could be applied to nursing practice. Service learning reinforced the community-based philosophy of the School of Nursing, and strengthened their abilities in leadership, teamwork, and collaboration with a greater orientation to community, vulnerable populations, and health promotion. Service learning was found to be an effective way to use the skills of the registered nurse for health related service in the community while also meeting their academic and individual learning needs

International perspectives on social media guidance for nurses: a content analysis

Aim: This article reports the results of an analysis of the content of national and international professional guidance on social media for the nursing profession. The aim was to consolidate good practice examples of social media guidelines, and inform the development of comprehensive guidance. Method: A scoping search of professional nursing bodies’ and organisations’ social media guidance documents was undertaken using google search. Results: 34 guidance documents were located, and a content analysis of these was conducted. Conclusion: The results, combined with a review of competency hearings and literature, indicate that guidance should cover the context of social media, and support nurses to navigate and negotiate the differences between the real and online domains to help them translate awareness into actions

"A manager in the minds of doctors" : a comparison of new modes of control in European hospitals

Background: Hospital governance increasingly combines management and professional self-governance. This article maps the new emergent modes of control in a comparative perspective and aims to better understand the relationship between medicine and management as hybrid and context-dependent. Theoretically, we critically review approaches into the managerialism-professionalism relationship; methodologically, we expand cross-country comparison towards the meso-level of organisations; and empirically, the focus is on processes and actors in a range of European hospitals. Methods: The research is explorative and was carried out as part of the FP7 COST action IS0903 Medicine and Management, Working Group 2. Comprising seven European countries, the focus is on doctors and public hospitals. We use a comparative case study design that primarily draws on expert information and document analysis as well as other secondary sources. Results: The findings reveal that managerial control is not simply an external force but increasingly integrated in medical professionalism. These processes of change are relevant in all countries but shaped by organisational settings, and therefore create different patterns of control: (1) ‘integrated’ control with high levels of coordination and coherent patterns for cost and quality controls; (2) ‘partly integrated’ control with diversity of coordination on hospital and department level and between cost and quality controls; and (3) ‘fragmented’ control with limited coordination and gaps between quality control more strongly dominated by medicine, and cost control by management. Conclusions: Our comparison highlights how organisations matter and brings the crucial relevance of ‘coordination’ of medicine and management across the levels (hospital/department) and the substance (cost/quality-safety) of control into perspective. Consequently, coordination may serve as a taxonomy of emergent modes of control, thus bringing new directions for cost-efficient and quality-effective hospital governance into perspective

Experimenting with inspiration: In-service education for HE teachers.

Experienced teachers at the University of Huddersfield participated in an experimental module, the Inspire Module, during 2013/14. The module was influenced by theories of transformative learning and arts-based education and aimed to offer participants freedom to experiment combined with intellectual support and challenge. Initial evaluations suggest that is has been partially successful, but that increased interventions, stimulus and opportunities for dialogue would improve the experience

#any use? What do we know about how teachers and doctors learn through social media use?

This scoping literature review describes the landscape of recent publications (2007-2016) about how teachers and doctors learn through social media to identify whether learning was being considered and, if so, how evidence was collected (N=162). Sixty-seven percent (N=108) were teacher-related and thirty-three percent (N=54) doctor-related, covering empirical studies, literature reviews, position articles and letters to academic journals. Empirical studies were dominant – ninety-one percent (N=98) of teacher-related and sixty-one percent (N=33) of doctor-related – with both fields dominated by in-course evaluations and use/attitude studies. Although doctor-related articles focused on professional online behaviour, rather than professional learning, conference communication and information evaluation were interesting areas of enquiry. Despite professional interest in social media in these professions, there is a dearth of academic studies about their benefits for teacher and doctor learning