Social media in nurse education: Utilization and E-professionalism

Objective: To explore faculty and student utilization of social media and its professional implications in nurse education. Methods: A descriptive study. Five hundred six Bachelor of Nursing students, 112 Practical Nursing students and 74 faculty members were invited to complete a questionnaire of 28 questions relating to social media. Results: Three hundred thirty-seven students and 29 faculty responded. Students spent significantly more time using social media compared to faculty and both groups used it mainly for personal use. However, almost twice as many students used social media for educational purposes than did faculty (58.5% vs 27.6%, p < 0.001). While almost 96% of students used social media to talk about academic related problems, only 28% of faculty did so (p < 0.000). Almost 60% of faculty expressly disagreed with using social media to discuss academic related problems. YouTube and text messaging were popular platforms for educational purposes. While Facebook was also a popular educational site for students (95% used it for informal learning; 67% for formal learning), it was much less commonly used by faculty (45% used it for informal learning; 17% for formal learning). More students than faculty felt that they were aware of privacy features, and of the professional behavior expected when using social media. In addition, more students (90.7%) than faculty (71.43%) used these privacy features (p < 0.000). However, 100% of students compared to only 13.79% of faculty reported that they had posted information that they would not want a prospective employer/member of academic staff to view (p = 0.003). Conclusion: There is a high reported usage of social media among students and faculty. Utilization of public platforms, while potentially beneficial, can have professional implications if not used appropriately with both personal and academic use. Developing best practice approaches for using social media in nurse education is essential to ensure that faculty and students are informed of e-professionalism.