title: Use and views on social networking sites of pharmacy students in the United kingdom.
abstract: Objective. To investigate students' use and views on social networking sites and assess differences in attitudes between genders and years in the program.Methods. All pharmacy undergraduate students were invited via e-mail to complete an electronic questionnaire consisting of 21 questions relating to social networking.Results. Most (91.8%) of the 377 respondents reported using social networking Web sites, with 98.6% using Facebook and 33.7% using Twitter. Female students were more likely than male students to agree that they had been made sufficiently aware of the professional behavior expected of them when using social networking sites (76.6% vs 58.1% p=0.002) and to agree that students should have the same professional standards whether on placement or using social networking sites (76.3% vs 61.6%; p<0.001).Conclusions. A high level of social networking use and potentially inappropriate attitudes towards professionalism were found among pharmacy students. Further training may be useful to ensure pharmacy students are aware of how to apply codes of conduct when using social networking sites.
authors: Department of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Antrim, United Kingdom. m.hall@qub.ac.uk
authors: Maurice
authors: M
authors: Hall
authors: Lezley-Anne
authors: LA
authors: Hanna
authors: Gwyneth
authors: G
authors: Huey
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D018907:Privacy; D024382:Professional Role; D012737:Sex Factors; D061108:Social Media; D060756:Social Networking; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013339:Students, Pharmacy / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: media; professionalism; social networking; students