Social media in O&G?

I wasn’t entirely sure how to engage with this questions. The teaching I do is a little different. I don’t have a set class that I teach over a long period of time, at least not yet. My teaching comes in spurts. A lecture here, a small group session there, some bedside teaching, and in the operating room (OR). If I have to choose something that I do the most, it would be teaching in the OR. So, could I use social media to develop new learning outcomes in this setting? First thing I have to consider is the patient and issues surrounding confidentiality. And then I would need to consider the learning outcomes for my resident/fellow. The learning objective in the OR would be:

  • to understand the risks and pathophysiology that led to the condition for which we are operating
  • to understand the indications for this operation, as well as the alternatives
  • to understand the anatomy of the pelvis
  • to know the potential complications of this operation
  • to know the precautions needed to avoid potential complications
  • to know how to handle the complications should it arise
  • the steps of the operation and the reasons or function of the steps
  • routine postoperative care
  • any special considerations for the patient and their specific set of circumstances

I’m sure there’s more but I can’t think of them right now. So now the question is can social media help develop any of these learning outcomes? Are there any outcomes that would be better learned through social media than through the means we currently use (one on one teaching/Q&A)?

According to Bates, the affordances of social media are (2014):
  • connectivity and social rapport
  • collaborative information discovery and sharing
  • content creation
  • knowledge and information aggregation and content modification
Based on the above, I can think of a few areas that can be aided by social media, but not specific to the OR. The first is to gain patient perspective. There’s an interesting article I read that demonstrates a positive correlation between physician empathy and patient outcome; the greater the level of empathy, the better the patient outcome (Hojat et al., 2011). Based on these finding, building empathy by understanding the patient perspective is an important learning outcome, though I failed to mention it above. Social media is a great way to connect to people with similar conditions and gain their perspective. Unfortunately, time in clinic is short as are the moments leading up to an operation. These moments may not afford enough time to establish a rapport and gain their perspective. Time and place is not an issue for social media, making it advantageous in this instance.

Through connectivity, not only can you gain the patient perspectives but also communicate with experts in the field that were beyond our reach previously. Every residency program has a journal club where a paper from an academic journal is chosen, read, and critically appraised. I have heard of some places where they get the actual authors involved through Skype or twitter to ask them about the paper, clarifications, and justifications for their decisions during their research. This makes for greater, in-depth understanding of the paper, and a great learning experience. Webinars are another area that could be a useful learning tool for the resident. By participating, they have the opportunity to engage with experts beyond our institution.

But as Bates acknowledges, students need structured support (2011). I think my job as an educator is to facilitate these connections, and provide the residents with these opportunities, give them learning objectives, and set aside time for them to complete these objectives.

References

  • Bates, T. (2014). Pedagogical differences between media: Social media. In Teaching in digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/9-5-5-social-media/
  • Hojat, M., Louis, D. Z., Markham, F. W., Wender, R., Rabinowitz, C., Gonnella, J. S. (2011). Physicians’ empathy and clinical outcomes for diabetic patients.  Academic Medicine Journal, 86, 359-364.

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