ABSTRACT
Introduction: There is a small volume of published literature describing the use of social networking sites, such as Facebook®, in medical education. However where this literature is available, only poor outcome measures such as learner satisfaction have been measured.Objectives: The primary aim of this study was to create and measure the use of a novel distance-learning module on the practice of evidence based medicine (EBM). This programme was to be delivered using an established and free web-based social-networking site, Facebook®.Methods: A prospective observational study was performed. 31 postgraduate residents enrolled to participate in a module that was delivered by Facebook® over five simultaneous weeks. A standardised tool, the Columbia EBM Instrument, was used to measure outcome measures such as "comfort-level", "self-reported practice", and "knowledge" before and after the module. Results: 12 residents (40%) engaged with the Facebook® activities. The residents' knowledge of EBM did increase, though a quasiexperimental analysis revealed that this increase of knowledge could not be attributed to the Facebook® group.were aged 3 years and younger. Scalds were by far the commonest type of burn occurring in 93% of the patients. Partial thickness burns accounted for 91.7% of cases. The average length of hospital stay was 20.9 days and the mortality rate 16.7%. Total Body Surface Area (TBSA) burned greater than 25% and full thickness burns were associated with mortality.Conclusion: Residents did not engage with the Facebook® groups despite the feasibility of doing so being high. The results of this study should guide educators to use Facebook® with caution as students may not engage with the activities
Subject(s)
Education, Distance , Education, Medical , Evidence-Based Medicine , Rwanda , Social Media , Social NetworkingABSTRACT
MY EXPERIENCE:Christian is a year 5 medical student in Rwanda embarking on his first research project.I had never undertaken a formal literature search until my 5th year of medical studies, I was therefore very much challenged by how rigorous it was. For the fist time, I had to use websites like PubMed, Cochrane to find the information I needed. This replaced my usual sources of information which had been Wikipedia and Google. I then had to learn how to use a reference manager, Mendeley, to store and cite the papers I found. I was using it and so many terms I hadn't heard of before. It was all unfamiliar to me.I found it really difficult to find relevant papers in PubMed and because of the scarcity of papers and poor internet connection I found it really discouraging.Organizing articles and summarizing them was the hardest of all. Multiple pages of conference reports, articles and surveys all were to be transformed into relevant systematically coordinated summary.As a solution to these problems I used the Mendeley literature search which contains an abundance of articles. I then hand-searched the bibliographies of the articles I had found. To overcome problems of internet connection I would work in places with strong Wi-Fi and spend the whole day nonstop searching and downloading everything ready for offline reading and reviewing.So, as a result, my research project got quicker, more organized, more comprehensible and I found this really satisfying