title: The responsible use of online social networking: who should mentor medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  As medical students become more active in online social networking (OSN), there are increasing concerns regarding violations of patient privacy and a lack of professionalism.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Students need to be mentored, but who is best suited to the task? We hypothesized that residents are closer to students in usage and attitudes toward online communication than are faculty. If so, they would be more credible as mentors.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed faculty (N = 16), 1st-year residents (N = 120), and 3rd-year medical students (N = 130) to compare attitudes about OSN and the online usage patterns.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found residents to be more like students in usage patterns of personal electronic media and in their choice of the mentoring techniques that should be used.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Residents say they were not prepared to mentor students without additional guidance but were more confident than faculty members that they had the knowledge to do so.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY, USA.
authors.forename: Pradip D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Karen Hughes
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ziegler
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ostapchuk
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D005180:Faculty, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors; D008875:Middle Aged; D024382:Professional Role; D060756:Social Networking; D012941:Social Responsibility; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States