Evaluating the appropriateness of Facebook posts – What do faculty and residents consider?

In order to understand what constitutes unprofessional online behaviour from the perspectives of stakeholders, there have been studies that examine the perceptions of doctors and the public on hypothetical online postings. However, the considerations and reasoning of the participants when they evaluate online posts have not been explored in-depth. This project aimed to examine the main considerations and possible conflicting considerations of faculty and residents when they evaluate the appropriateness of Facebook posts, and how they might negotiate any conflicts. Faculty and residents from the National Healthcare Group – Alexandra Health Pte Ltd Residency in Singapore were randomly presented Facebooks posts as part of an online questionnaire, rated their appropriateness, and provided explanations for their ratings. Responses were coded for main considerations and responses with 2 or more conflicting considerations were further analysed to describe the conflict and the way they were negotiated. 182 faculty and residents rated the appropriateness of three out of six Facebook posts and explained their evaluation. Except for one post which was evaluated as ‘Neither appropriate nor inappropriate’ by the majority (37%) of the respondents, all other posts were rated as either ‘Very inappropriate’ or ‘Inappropriate’ by the majority of respondents (34%-69%). Despite similar evaluation of inappropriateness, faculty and residents take into account a wide range of considerations. These considerations tend to conflict with one another when the respondents considered freedom of expression of the poster and the educational purpose of a post. Understanding physicians’ negotiation of conflicting considerations provides insight into their outworking of professionalism in social media context.