EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION EFFECTS ON THE PERCEPTION OF UNPROFESSIONAL CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA OF STUDENTS OF MEDICINE AND DENTAL MEDICINE.

Aim: Social media (SM) is part of everyday communication. Professional behavior of healthcare professionals is more exposed to evaluation through these online services. This research aimed to examine the effects of an educational intervention (one-semester elective course) on the perception of unprofessional content on SM among students of medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and dental medicine at the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Zagreb. Materials and methods: A "one-group pretest-posttest design" study design was used. An online questionnaire containing an instrument on the perception of unprofessional content was distributed at the beginning (T1) and end of the course (T2). McNemar's test with Bonferroni correction was used for statistical analysis of differences in the perception of unprofessional content on SM between T1 and T2. Results: A total of 68 responses were collected. The questionnaire was filled out just at T1 by eight, just at T2 by seven, and both times by 53 students. The sample was predominantly female (79.2%), with an average age of 20 years, and with more dental medicine students (69.8%). One respondent claimed no SM use. Of the 19 items in the instrument, "minor criminal activities" (98.1%), "posts that reveal information about patients" (98.1%), "posts that include explicit sexual content" (96.2%), and "posts that show drug use" (96.2%) were finally (T2) rated as the most unprofessional. Although statistically significant differences in increased perception of unprofessional content on SM at the end of the course compared to the beginning were found in the initial analysis, with Bonferroni correction, there were no statistically significant differences. Conclusion: The perception of unprofessional content among medicine and dental medicine students is high. Although the educational intervention did not lead to statistically significant changes in increasing the perception of professional content, it strengthened the understanding of the concept of professionalism on SM among students. This study is part of a project funded by the Croatian Science Foundation UIP-05-2017 "Dangers and benefits of social networks: E-Professionalism of healthcare professionals - SMePROF". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]