Irfanullah Afridi, Iqbal Haider, Dawood Khan, Wisal Ahmad, Osama Sharjeel Khan.
Trends and perceptions of social media as learning tool in healthcare professionals.
J Med Sci Jan ;28(3):228-32.

Objectives: To conduct a survey regarding proportion of healthcare professionals utilizing social media for their academic and professional purposes. Material and methods: This was a questionnaire based survey. In this study, 750 HCPs were approached through different social media platforms as well as in hard form. HCPs were categorized into medical students, house officers, medical officers, PGRs and consultants. Out of these 750 HCPs, 512 HCPs filled the questionnaire. Response rate was 68.3%. Results: Among 512 HCPs, 309 (60.4%) were males and 203 (39.6%) were females. PGRs contributed as the maximum participants 199(38.9%) followed by medical students 93(18.2%). Among HCPs, 125(24.4%), 214 (41.8%), 101(19.7%), 34(6.6%) and 38 (7.4%) were using social media for 1-2 hours, 3-4 hours, 5-6 hours, 7-8 hours and >8 hours respectively. Maximum participants 369(71.7%) were using WhatsApp along with other apps, followed by YouTube. YouTube was the most preferred App among HCPs. Among them, 350 (68.4%) HCPs agreed that using social media was helpful for professional purposes, 335 (65.4%) recommended using social media for professional purposes. Conclusion: Majority of HCPs utilize social media as professional and learning tool in their academic activities. WhatsApp and YouTube are the two most common modalities of social media utilized by HCPs in this study. Majority of HCPs recommended using social media for professional purposes.

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