J Korean Med Sci.  2021 Nov;36(42):e296. 10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e296.

A Preliminary Study on Uncovering Medical Students' Unprofessional Behaviors from YouTube Videos

• Lee YM
• Lee J
• Rhim HC
• Park H

• KMID: 2522118
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2021.36.e296

Abstract

Creation of guidelines and education on digital professionalism have been sluggish despite the ever-increasing use of social media by digitally native medical students, who are at risk of blurring the line between their professional and personal lives online. A qualitative thematic analysis was applied on 79 videos extracted from 70,154 YouTube videos uploaded by Korean medical students between March and April 2020. We found 20% contained at least one concerning behavior themed under ‘failure to engage,’ ‘disrespectful behaviors,’ or ‘poor selfawareness.’ Professional lapses identified were classified into seriousness levels. Mostly were “controversial’ or ‘concerning’ but some ‘highly concerning’ contents were also found. This is the first study on digital professionalism behavior on medical students' YouTube videos. The potential negative impact on the medical profession of the easily accessible public online videos cannot be ignored and thus we suggest the need for them to be taken more seriously.

Keyword

Professionalism; E-professionalism; Digital Media; Social Media; Medical Students; YouTube

Reference

1. Hilton SR, Slotnick HB. Proto-professionalism: how professionalisation occurs across the continuum of medical education. Med Educ. 2005; 39(1):58–65. PMID: 15612901.

2. Kim DH. Social media guideline. Healthc Policy Forum. 2020; 18(1):38–42.

3. Kim CJ, Bhan YW. Maintaining professional dignity in the age of social media. Korean J Med Ethics. 2018; 21(4):316–329.

4. Sabin JE, Harland JC. Professional ethics for digital age psychiatry: boundaries, privacy, and communication. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2017; 19(9):55. PMID: 28726059.

5. Cain J, Romanelli F. E-professionalism: a new paradigm for a digital age. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2009; 1(2):66–70.

6. Ellaway RH, Coral J, Topps D, Topps M. Exploring digital professionalism. Med Teach. 2015; 37(9):844–849. PMID: 26030375.

7. Guseh JS 2nd, Brendel RW, Brendel DH. Medical professionalism in the age of online social networking. J Med Ethics. 2009; 35(9):584–586. PMID: 19717700.

8. Chretien KC, Greysen SR, Chretien JP, Kind T. Online posting of unprofessional content by medical students. JAMA. 2009; 302(12):1309–1315. PMID: 19773566.

9. Osman A, Wardle A, Caesar R. Online professionalism and Facebook--falling through the generation gap. Med Teach. 2012; 34(8):e549–e556. PMID: 22494078.

10. Barlow CJ, Morrison S, Stephens HO, Jenkins E, Bailey MJ, Pilcher D. Unprofessional behaviour on social media by medical students. Med J Aust. 2015; 203(11):439. PMID: 26654611.

11. Thompson LA, Dawson K, Ferdig R, Black EW, Boyer J, Coutts J, et al. The intersection of online social networking with medical professionalism. J Gen Intern Med. 2008; 23(7):954–957. PMID: 18612723.

12. GMI Blogger. YouTube User Statistics 2021. [place unknown]: Infographics, Social Media Marketing;2021.

13. Barbour RS. Checklists for improving rigour in qualitative research: a case of the tail wagging the dog? BMJ. 2001; 322(7294):1115–1117. PMID: 11337448.

14. Malterud K. Qualitative research: standards, challenges, and guidelines. Lancet. 2001; 358(9280):483–488. PMID: 11513933.

15. Pope C, Ziebland S, Mays N. Qualitative research in health care. Analysing qualitative data. BMJ. 2000; 320(7227):114–116. PMID: 10625273.

16. Mak-Van Der Vossen M, Van Mook W, Van Der Burgt S, Kors J, Ket JCF, Croiset G, et al. Descriptors for unprofessional behaviours of medical students: a systematic review and categorisation. BMC Med Educ. 2017; 17(1):164. PMID: 28915870.

17. General Medical Council. Good Medical Practice: Working with Doctors, Working with Patients. London, UK: General Medical Council;2013.

18. Kaczmarczyk JM, Chuang A, Dugoff L, Abbott JF, Cullimore AJ, Dalrymple J, et al. e-Professionalism: a new frontier in medical education. Teach Learn Med. 2013; 25(2):165–170. PMID: 23530680.

19. Bahr TJ, Crampton NH, Domb S. The facets of digital health professionalism: defining a framework for discourse and change. Shachak A, Borycki EM, Reis SP, editors. Health Professionals' Education in the Age of Clinical Information Systems, Mobile Computing and Social Networks. London, UK: Elsevier/Academic Press;2017. p. 65–89.