Terveydenhuollon muuttuvat viestintäkäytännöt: Kyselytutkimus terveydenhuollon asiantuntijoille sosiaalisen median mahdollisuuksista ja uhista potilastyössä

This study investigates how hospital nurses and doctors use social media professionally, how they evaluate the information that patients obtain from the internet, and how they perceive the effects of social media on patient care and the interactions between a care provider and a care receiver.

A total of 490 experts working with patients in the Pirkanmaa Hospital District responded to the survey. The results show that the healthcare experts had ambivalent relationships with social media. On the one hand, they perceived social media as a feasible source of peer support and information for care
receivers primarily but also for experts. On the other hand, they reported that the spread of disinformation and misinformation through social media and the internet jeopardises the delivery of medically correct information to care receivers and lowers trust in healthcare professionals. The ambivalent relationship with social media is explained by practical, work-related, and professional ethical reasons as well as the low professional use of social media by the hospital healthcare experts.

In relation to patients’ use of social media, the experts shared positive and negative experiences. While 40% of the respondents had positive experiences, 31% had negative experiences, and 30% reported both positive and negative experiences. The respondents identified peer support and correct information as
positive aspects. They considered incorrect information to be a negative aspect that impairs the quality of care and, at its most extreme, causes conflict within the patient care relationship.

The research findings illustrate how social media, as a part of the virtualisation of communication, is changing the communication of healthcare experts. Furthermore, the findings imply modifications to the duties of physicians and nurses and to communication in healthcare.