Authors
- Elissa Campbell1,
- Chi Li2,
- Sonia Fullerton3
- St. John of God Hospital Bunbury1,
- St. Vincent's Private Hospital2,
- Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre3
2014
Excerpt
Social media is being utilized by an increasing number of people for professional purposes.(1) The aim of this study
was to describe which palliative care health professionals ar,e currently using Twitter for their work and how satisfied they are with their experience.
Health care professionals involved in palliative care were asked to complete an online survey via a link tweeted in English on Twitter.com, a popular microblogging social media platform. The study authors used hashtags popular with health care professionals (such as #palliative, #hpmglobal and #hpm) to promote the survey link, which was tweeted actively for a week in May 2014, particularly during tweetchats.
Fifty-five respondents completed the voluntary, anonymous survey. Most reported having used Twitter professionally for more than 12 months. Participants were generally enthusiastic about the idea of various scheduled tweetchats, such as #hpmglobal and #hpm, as well as the palliative care journal club (#hpmjc), although many did not participate regularly.
The majority gave their place of work as the United Kingdom (21, 38%). Fifteen participants came from Australia (27%), one from New Zealand (2%), ten from the United States (18%) and three from Canada (5%). Five other countries listed (9%) were not countries in which English was the primary language.
Participants described their role as doctor in 22 cases (40%) and nurse in 12 (22%), with the remainder being
researchers (20%), people who worked for governmental (4%) or non-governmental (11%) organizations, or other.
Participants worked across a variety of clinical settings. Half the respondents worked in a large city.
Eighty percent of participants agreed or strongly agreed that they had meaningful engagement on Twitter regarding palliative or hospice issues with professionals in their own country, with 75% reporting the same with professionals in other countries. Participants were more ambivalent about whether they had meaningful engagement on Twitter with palliative care consumers, policy-makers, lobbyists and the media.
Eighty percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Twitter was a useful source of information about peer reviewed journal articles concerning palliative care, while 92% found Twitter a useful source of information from other sources such as mainstream media, websites and biogs. Almost eighty percent of participants would recommend Twitter to colleagues.
The findings of this survey suggest that a range of palliative care professionals currently use Twitter for work. They are generally satisfied with their experience, describing meaningful engagement with other health care professionals and regard Twitter as an excellent place to obtain palliative care information from peer-reviewed journals and other media sources. Most would recommend Twitter to their colleagues. So what are you waiting for? Join the palliative care Twitterverse today!
(1) Taubert M, Watts G, Boland J and Radbruch L. 'Palliative social media'. BMJ S upport Palliat Care 2014;4:13-18
was to describe which palliative care health professionals ar,e currently using Twitter for their work and how satisfied they are with their experience.
Health care professionals involved in palliative care were asked to complete an online survey via a link tweeted in English on Twitter.com, a popular microblogging social media platform. The study authors used hashtags popular with health care professionals (such as #palliative, #hpmglobal and #hpm) to promote the survey link, which was tweeted actively for a week in May 2014, particularly during tweetchats.
Fifty-five respondents completed the voluntary, anonymous survey. Most reported having used Twitter professionally for more than 12 months. Participants were generally enthusiastic about the idea of various scheduled tweetchats, such as #hpmglobal and #hpm, as well as the palliative care journal club (#hpmjc), although many did not participate regularly.
The majority gave their place of work as the United Kingdom (21, 38%). Fifteen participants came from Australia (27%), one from New Zealand (2%), ten from the United States (18%) and three from Canada (5%). Five other countries listed (9%) were not countries in which English was the primary language.
Participants described their role as doctor in 22 cases (40%) and nurse in 12 (22%), with the remainder being
researchers (20%), people who worked for governmental (4%) or non-governmental (11%) organizations, or other.
Participants worked across a variety of clinical settings. Half the respondents worked in a large city.
Eighty percent of participants agreed or strongly agreed that they had meaningful engagement on Twitter regarding palliative or hospice issues with professionals in their own country, with 75% reporting the same with professionals in other countries. Participants were more ambivalent about whether they had meaningful engagement on Twitter with palliative care consumers, policy-makers, lobbyists and the media.
Eighty percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that Twitter was a useful source of information about peer reviewed journal articles concerning palliative care, while 92% found Twitter a useful source of information from other sources such as mainstream media, websites and biogs. Almost eighty percent of participants would recommend Twitter to colleagues.
The findings of this survey suggest that a range of palliative care professionals currently use Twitter for work. They are generally satisfied with their experience, describing meaningful engagement with other health care professionals and regard Twitter as an excellent place to obtain palliative care information from peer-reviewed journals and other media sources. Most would recommend Twitter to their colleagues. So what are you waiting for? Join the palliative care Twitterverse today!
(1) Taubert M, Watts G, Boland J and Radbruch L. 'Palliative social media'. BMJ S upport Palliat Care 2014;4:13-18