JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

As social media has become increasingly integrated into healthcare, it is becoming an essential tool for healthcare professionals, researchers, and patients to communicate, share information, and stay up-to-date. Peer-assisted learning (PAL) using social media can be a highly effective method of supporting medical trainees. Mobile device applications and social media may play a role in facilitating anesthesia trainee-led online education. However, there are still many challenges facing anesthesia trainees when it comes to incorporating social media or PAL effectively.

Objective:

The primary objective of this survey was to assess the proportion of trainees that use social media. The secondary objectives were to identify the perceptions by trainees on the use of social media for educational purposes including PAL.

Methods:

Ethics approval was obtained for this study. This cross-sectional study was conducted through a survey administered via email at a single large academic center. The survey tool collected data on the following: demographic data (year of study/ field of specialty), use of technology and online resources for medicine, use of social media platforms for anesthesia or training, benefits and barriers to future uses of social media for training, and ideas for trainee-led websites.

Results:

80 trainees responded (anesthesia residents = 51, anesthesia fellows = 29) to the survey. The highest perceived benefits of PAL according to residents were that the most valuable information is available on-demand (52.9%), it saves time (52.9%), and it improves their overall learning experience within anesthesia (47.1%). In comparison, fellows thought that PAL was beneficial because it provides multiple perspectives of a single topic (44.8%) and serves as an additional platform to discuss ideas with peers (44.8%). Most medical trainees accessed medical resources with the help of their mobile devices multiple times each day (76.3%). The most popular platforms used by both residents and fellows is Facebook (86.0% and 89.3%, respectively) followed by LinkedIn (42.0% and 28.6%, respectively). Even though most anesthesia trainees use social media, only 26.3% reported to have used peer-led resident/fellow-driven online resources. Examples of PALs trainees used included anesthesia groups and a resident Dropbox resource folder.

Conclusions:

Trainees all have access to devices to use regularly for medical knowledge and there is generally an acceptance to using PAL for learning if they address concepts that are individualized to a trainee's level of education. PAL has the potential to garner an increased sense of community and sharing within learning experiences throughout all levels of training. The information gained from this survey will help inform the basis for developing an anesthesia trainee-led e-learning platform. Therefore, the opinions and information shared by participants within trainee programs could help directly influence the content developed on a pilot platform. Clinical Trial: N/A