Social media for learning: A qualitative exploration of the factors that impact clinical learners' attitudes and intentions.

BACKGROUND: Social media has created a revolution in learning and teaching. This study set out to provide a theory-informed exploration of the factors influencing medical students' perspectives of learning with social media using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as a framework.

METHODS: The study collected data using semi-structured interviews from seven third year medical students at an undergraduate Australian medical school, who were in their first clinical year. The data were analysed inductively and deductively using TPB.

RESULTS: Three themes emerged relating to the factors that influence medical students' attitudes and intentions regarding using social media for learning: (1) Social media aligns with the needs and preferences of the contemporary learner; (2) rise of medical professionals on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic; and (3) being an informed user of social media for learning. Participants had largely positive views and attitudes towards social media as a learning tool especially for preclinical content due to its capacity for multimodal information delivery and evolving social norms. However, this positivity was tempered by the challenges they faced in determining quality of resources, linking their learning to clinical medicine and accessing specialist content.

CONCLUSION: Social media can play a significant role in medical students' learning. However, its potential as an educational tool can be enhanced by widening access to resources, and implementing strategies that help students increase their evaluative judgement skills to make informed decisions regarding the quality of social media resources and to translate their social media-mediated learning into clinical practice.