Connecting Health Care Workers and Young Adults Through Social Media
By Skylar Bragg
For teenagers, spending hours scrolling, clicking, and communicating through social media is normal on a day-to-day basis. They talk with friends, post pictures and videos, read captions and comments, and all without realizing the immense amount of information that they are consciously and subconsciously consuming. According to a study done by Pew Research Center, “Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online ‘almost constantly’” (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). And while for many adults and older individuals it can be hard to wrap their heads around it all, it is behavior that is here to stay. This can be looked at with a positive view for health care providers when trying to educate and communicate with younger generations. They have a whole, new, effective, and efficient way of communicating with their younger patients right at their fingertips!
Creating Discussion and Connection
One of the greatest uses that social media can provide health care workers is the ability to initiate discussion amongst young adults and teens. Whether that discussion be about mental health issues, sexually transmitted diseases, common health questions and answers, etc., social media has created this powerful platform in which adolescents can talk and discuss issues they are having along with any questions and concerns.
Many grew up turning to social media for a safe place to express who they are, their ideas, and their lives. Having discussions about these topics specifically would not be totally new and unfamiliar and could potentially improve their lives and provide a supportive space they can share their stories. Discussed in an article written by Rebekah Bernard (2018), while you might spend a lot of your time with a patient, assessing, diagnosing, and creating treatment plans, a lot of patients still leave medical offices lacking a sense of certainty and feeling unsatisfied. This is where social media can come into play giving health care providers an extra platform to reach out on and revive that connection. A connection is most important for health care providers so your patients trust you and everything you are doing for them.
Spreading Health Information
For most adolescents, a lot of the information they consume comes from social media. Many studies have shown that through social media, you are able to positively provide health information and encourage healthy behavior changes (Yonker et al., 2015). Whether it is a post that pops up in their feed, an ad coming up on a video they are watching, or an account they can follow themselves, using social media as a health care provider gives you many ways to spread the information you want and to do so effectively. Making the effort to spread information through social media also shows your patient’s that they matter, and you care enough to do so. Knowing you will be cared for has a lot to do with the effort that the other individual is putting in and making it a priority to stay connected does just that.
Keeping Up
Social media is so different from what we see in real life and can provide health care workers a new way of looking into their patients’ lives and observing their behaviors. Research found that many adolescents displayed sexual behaviors, alcohol, drug, and tobacco use online (Yonker et al., 2015). There are two large benefits that come along with health care providers being able to look more closely into a patient’s life. The first one is being able to keep up with the social norms and peer pressures that teens may face and the behaviors that are seen as “cool” or “normal” for teenagers to do. While these behaviors may seem normal to teenagers, they may also consist of major health risks. The second benefit is that it gives health care workers an opportunity to view any health risks or risky health behaviors that were missed in their initial screening of the patient. This can directly affect the diagnosis and treatment given to a patient.
Complications
While using social media as a health care worker to connect with adolescents, you must do so with some precautions. This type of social communication is strong because it can reach so many individuals at once. With that all being said, you want all the information that you are posting and sharing to one hundred percent be useful and most importantly factual. Social media is a great place for education, but many get confused with the information that is put out there and a lot of misconceptions are made due to poorly thought-out posts and information that is not true. To an expert that has a background in medicine or health care you might think that it is easy to decipher what is true and what is not online. It is not easy and there is access to information to support any view, right or wrong. We also must keep in mind that there still needs to be patient confidentiality in everything you do online. Social media connects you to millions of people and personal information can easily get out without you even knowing it. Once something is shared online, it is very difficult to remove.
Being able to stay connected to your patients is so important as a health care provider. Social media can do just that creating discussion, providing a platform to educate, and give health care providers a window to look inside their patients’ lives. For adolescents, being able to connect with health care providers through social media could positively improve trust and their relationship with their provider. The opportunities are endless when using social media and it is likely that health care in this space will continue to grow. What it will take, is trying new things and finding what works best and connects you to your patients more effectively and efficiently.
References
Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018, May 31). Teens, Social Media and Technology 2018. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/
Yonker, L. M., Zan, S., Scirica, C. V., Jethwani, K., & Kinane, T. B. (2015). “Friending” Teens: Systematic Review of Social Media in Adolescent and Young Adult Health Care. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 17(1). https://www.jmir.org/2015/1/e4/
Bernard, R. (2018). Use psychology to improve patient satisfaction. Medical Economics. https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/use-psychology-improve-patient-satisfaction