Objectives:

To describe the online behaviour of medical students, their opinions the use of social media and to understand aspects of undergraduate medical training regarding ethics and professionalism.

Methods:

This was a cross-sectional study with a sample of 260 medical students enrolled in the fifth and sixth years at three medical schools in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. The data were collected between August 2015 and July 2016 at the teaching hospitals of each medical school. This paper reports the results from a structured questionnaire composed by the authors about online ethics and professionalism and answered by the students. The obtained data were analysed by means of the following statistical tests: Pearson’s Chi-square, Fisher’s exact test, Kruskal-Wallis and McNemar tests. For the Likert scale-type part of the questionnaire average ranking was calculated for student responses. Cronbach Alpha was also calculated. The study was approved by the Ethics on Research Committee. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. In order to ensure the confidentiality of the results, the medical schools had their names omitted.

Results:

A total of 84 students (32.3%) reported that they had posted pictures or videos with patients and 108 (41.5%) had posted pictures or videos with alcoholic drinks or cigarettes. A statistically significant difference (p<0.001) was found between the three medical schools relative to students posting pictures or videos with patients. The students from institution number III were the least likely to post photos or videos with patients or with alcoholic drinks or cigarettes, according to their answers to the questionnaire. Furthermore, institution number III also had the highest number of students that reported having addressed issues of online professionalism in medical training(262%/22). Analysing the three institutions separately an inverse relationship was found between “posting photos or videos with patients” and “online professionalism during undergraduate training”. Among those surveyed, 79% (205) agreed that some content published by doctors on Facebook might harm the doctor’s reputation. Students reported having had no discussions concerning online professionalism during their undergraduate course in 80.8% of the cases. Analysing the curriculum from the three medical schools, only institution number III was found to offer specific content regarding professional development and formally addressed theories regarding concepts of ethics during the medical residency.

Conclusion:

When we consider the recommendations found in the Code of Medical Ethics, resolutions published by the Brazilian Federal Medical Council (BFMC), and foreign guidelines, it was evident that a large number of students had posted inappropriate content online. A failure to adequately address ethics and professionalism as part of academic training may well play a part in issues related to the behaviour of medical students on social meda. More research into online behaviour and ethics/professionalism taught as part of undergraduate training is needed to infer causal relationships. Finally, it could be concluded that online professionalism was a topic that was scarcely addressed in the curricula of the surveyed medical schools.

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