Pharmacy and medical students' attitudes and perspectives on social media usage and e-professionalism in United Arab Emirates.

BACKGROUND

It is imperative to establish how students view and present themselves on social media and to assess level of awareness regarding the implications of their social media presence, e-professionalism, and accountability. The study objectives were to: 1) Determine the social media usage levels among medical and pharmacy students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); 2) Characterize the students' views and perceptions, including their awareness of e-professionalism; and 3) Compare the responses in behavior between the two groups.

METHODOLOGY

A cross-sectional study was performed on 575 undergraduate students from two study disciplines, pharmacy (n = 325) and medicine (n = 250). Minor revisions were made to previously validated assessment tools and pilot tested. The study sample included students from five different universities across the country.

RESULTS

In comparison to medical students, pharmacy students were observed to use social media more for learning purposes (χ = 6.8, P < .05). However, medical students' opinions reflected more strongly on the context of accountability and e-professionalism (χ = 15.8, P < .05). A considerable proportion (89%) of students felt it was discriminatory for prospective employers to use their social media profile information for investigative purposes while hiring. One-third of respondents reported sharing information that they would not want their employers to view, and 67.1% reported the same for information relevant to patients.

CONCLUSION

The research findings converge to address the need for educators and administrators in the UAE to develop guidelines concerning its safe use and proactively integrate e-professionalism into their respective curriculum.