title: A national cross-sectional survey of social networking practices of U.S. anesthesiology residency program directors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the social networking practices of directors of anesthesiology residency programs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Online and paper survey tool.
  
  
  METHODS
  132 anesthesiology residency program directors in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 13-item survey including dichotomous and multiple choice responses was administered using an online survey tool and a paper survey. Data analysis was conducted by descriptive and analytical statistics (chi-square test). A P-value < 0.05 indicated statistical significance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  50% of anesthesiology program directors responded to the survey (66/132). Policies governing social networking practices were in place for 30.3% (n=20) of the programs' hospitals. The majority of program directors (81.8%, 54) reported never having had an incident involving reprimand of a resident or fellow for inappropriate social networking practices. The majority (66.7%, n=44) of responding programs reported that departments did not provide lectures or educational activities related to appropriate social networking practices. Monitoring of social networking habits of residents/fellows by program directors mainly occurs if they are alerted to a problem (54.5%, n=36). Frequent use of the Internet for conducting searches on a resident applicant was reported by 12.1% (n=8) of program directors, 30.3% (n=20) reported use a few times, and 57.6% (n=38) reported never using the Internet in this capacity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Residency programs should have a written policy related to social media use. Residency program directors should be encouraged to become familiar with the professionalism issues related to social media use in order to serve as adequate resident mentors within this new and problematic aspect of medical ethics and professionalism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Scott & White Healthcare and Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine, Temple, TX 76508, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: Hania
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wehbe-Janek
authors.forename: Naumit S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Bhandari
authors.forename: Timothy M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Bittenbinder
authors.forename: ChanHee
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jo
authors.forename: Russell K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: McAllister
mesh_terms: D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000193:education*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016134:Organizational Policy; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States