Background: There is ongoing debate around the concept of e-professionalism in the healthcare professions, with many incidents of unprofessional behaviour still reported despite policy and professional guidance having been in place for several years. A realist ethnographic study over 4 years identified inconsistent opinion across the nursing profession about what is or is not 'professional' in social media. As a result, a decision making tool was developed: Awareness to Action (A2A) 3Cs.
Aim: This project aimed to evaluate and validate the A2A 3Cs decision making tool for assessing whether behaviours in social media are acceptable, unacceptable, professional or unprofessional.
Method: A pre-test, post-test survey design was employed to assess the internal validity and reliability of the tool during January to November 2018. Participants were presented with five examples of behaviour in social media and used the tool to assess what action they would take (if any). A survey was also used to evaluate the usability, usefulness and relevance to nursing practice. Ethical approval was granted from two higher education institutions. Participants were recruited through social media, two higher education institutions and an NHS trust.
Results: 45 nurses completed the pre-test, post-test validation component and 122 evaluated the tool. Using SPSS v24.0, Intraclass correlation showed excellent reliability 0.979 [CI 0.940, 0.997] p=0.000. Cronhbach's Kappa for each of the case examples showed high levels of internal validity. Kruskill-Wallis testing demonstrated no significant difference in decisions made based on age, nursing role, length of time registered and region of the United Kingdom.
Conclusion: The A2A 3Cs tool could potentially be used to refine and develop a more aligned approach to policy and professional guidance, promote consistency in perspectives about what is deemed to be unprofessional in the nursing profession and in the education of nurses and healthcare professionals on the topic of e-professionalism
