BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education is an increased awareness and use of social media (SocMed) to facilitate learning. However, literature on the use of SocMed in medical education has focused primarily on educator-led teaching activities. Our study aimed to describe SocMed initiatives that were student-led, particularly for information dissemination and peer collaborative learning, and to elicit perceptions of medical students towards such activities.

METHODS

An online survey on SocMed usage in medical education was sent to all first- and second-year medical students at the University of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine from October to December 2021. The questionnaire collected data on demographics, SocMed habits and preferences, and perceived advantages and disadvantages of SocMed. Descriptive statistics were calculated while the free-text responses were grouped into prominent themes and summarized.

RESULTS

We received a total of 258 responses (71%) out of 361 eligible participants. Overall, 74% found SocMed platforms to be very and extremely helpful; 88% recommended its continued use. The most popular SocMed platforms for different tasks were as follows: Discord for independent study groups and for conducting peer tutoring sessions; Facebook Messenger for reading reminders; Telegram for reading announcements related to academics and administrative requirements, and for accessing material provided by classmates and professors.

CONCLUSION

The high uptake of SocMed among medical students may be attributed to its accessibility and costefficiency. The use of a particular SocMed platform was dependent on the students’ needs and the platform's features. Students tended to use multiple SocMed platforms that complemented one another. SocMed also had disadvantages, such as the potential to distract from academic work and to become a source of fatigue. Educators must engage with students to understand how SocMed platforms can be integrated into medical education, whether in the physical or virtual learning environment.

Human ; Education, Medical, Undergraduate ; Social Media ; Online Learning ; Education, Distance

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to analyze the barriers affecting the utilization of antenatal care (ANC) among Senegalese mothers. METHODS: Health facility staffs were surveyed to examine the availability coverage of ANC (infrastructural capacity of health posts to handle maternal and newborn healthcare). A total of 113 women of childbearing age were surveyed to identify factors associated with the accessibility coverage (physical, economic, and information accessibility factors), acceptability coverage (socio-cultural features, social acceptance, and language), and effectiveness coverage (ratio of mothers having completed 4 visits) of ANC. Further, to identify the socio-cultural factors and the specific characteristics of the barriers, 5 focus group discussions were conducted with women of childbearing age, their husbands and mothers-in-law, community health workers, and health facility staff. The effectiveness coverage of ANC was analyzed by reviewing materials from the District Health Information System 2 of Senegal. RESULTS: Key barriers of ANC utilization were associated with acceptability coverage. ANC during early pregnancy was avoided owing to the negative social stigma surrounding miscarriage. The survey results indicated an extremely high miscarriage rate of 30.9% among the participants. The social stigma towards unmarried mothers caused them to hide their pregnancy, which deterred ANC utilization. The husband was the final decision maker and social supporter on ANC utilization. CONCLUSION: To promote the utilization of ANC services among pregnant women in Senegal, it is important to alleviate the social stigma towards miscarriages and unmarried mothers, and to provide greater social support for pregnancies and newborn deliveries within family.
Abortion, Spontaneous ; Community Health Workers ; Female ; Focus Groups ; Health Facilities ; Health Information Systems ; Humans ; Illegitimacy ; Infant Health ; Infant, Newborn ; Maternal Health ; Mothers ; Patient Acceptance of Health Care ; Pregnancy ; Pregnant Women ; Senegal ; Social Distance ; Social Stigma ; Spouses

The issue exerting the greatest influence in Korea is the low birth rate. It is important, therefore, to examine the countermeasures taken, and their effectiveness, by other countries suffering a declining birth rate and consequent aging population before Korea. Such countries can be categorized according to their cultural background: the UK, Continental Europe, Scandinavia, and Asia. In Continental European countries, such as Germany and France, the employment rate of women is relatively low, whereas it is relatively high in the UK and Scandinavian countries. In Asian countries, such as Japan and Singapore, despite many policies instituting the work-family balance, a childcare infrastructure, and child allowance, little is being achieved, due to the specific culture of Asia and the social rejection of various family forms. However, it should not be forgotten that those countries succeeding in increasing the birth rate have implemented continuous policies for decades.
Aging ; Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Birth Rate ; Child ; Employment ; Europe ; Female ; France ; Germany ; Humans ; Japan ; Korea ; Parturition ; Scandinavian and Nordic Countries ; Singapore ; Social Distance

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explore factors associated with the social distance attitudes of nursing students towards adults with mental disorders. The relationship between social distance and attitudes toward adults with mental disorders was also examined. METHODS: A descriptive research was conducted to describe the characteristics of the population and the data were collected from September 22 to October 2, 2014. The sample included 359 participants. Social distance was measured by a modified version of the Social Distance Scale and CAMI was used to assess attitudes towards adults with mental disorders. RESULTS: Participants showed less authoritarian, more benevolence, less social restrictiveness in attitudes towards adults with mental disorders. The participants also showed a positive community mental health ideology. More importantly, the attitudes towards people with mental disorders was the strongest predictor (β=.67), explaining 35% of the social distance. CONCLUSION: With a deeper understanding of social distance as related to attitudes towards people with mental disorders, it is possible to create targeted interventions with the overall goal of minimizing the social distance and authoritarianism and of facilitating benevolence among nursing students.
Adult* ; Authoritarianism ; Beneficence ; Humans ; Mental Disorders* ; Mental Health ; Nursing* ; Social Distance* ; Students, Nursing*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of human rights sensitivity and social distance in psychiatric hospital orderlies on attitudes toward mental illness, including authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness, and community mental health ideology. METHODS: Participants were 201 psychiatric hospital orderlies working in one national mental hospital or one of 10 private mental hospitals. Data were collected from May 9 to June 22, 2016. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and hierarchical multiple regression using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. RESULTS: Human rights sensitivity and social distance were statistically significant predictors for the attitude toward mental illness in psychiatric hospital orderlies. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that human rights sensitivity and social distance explained an additional 23% of authoritarianism, 16% of benevolence, 35% of social restrictiveness and 29% of community mental health ideology. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that education programs to increase levels of human rights sensitivity and reduce the levels of social distance among psychiatric hospital orderlies would improve their attitude toward patients with the mental illness.
Authoritarianism ; Beneficence ; Education ; Hospitals, Psychiatric* ; Human Rights* ; Humans* ; Mental Health ; Psychiatric Aides* ; Social Distance*

Education is essential for specialists in charge terminal care of cancer patients. In the second 10-year plan to conquer cancer under the Cancer Control Act, the Korean government announced a plan to train more hospice and palliative care (HPC) specialists based on quantitative HPC expansion. Specifically, the government aims to develop e-learning programs to foster social workers in HPC, following those offered to doctors and nurses. In HPC, social workers have served a vital role in helping patients overcome psychological and social issues. As professionals, they have carried out their responsibilities and played their part in the field to help HPC to take root and be institutionalized in Korea. To date, it has been difficult to obtain practical knowledge and skills for social workers due to the lack of systematic training program. Development of an e-learning program for social workers, as proposed in this study, should strengthen social workers in charge of terminally-ill cancer patients in terms of their identity, expertise, and practical skills in clinical setting and improve their access to education. We also hope the program to be further developed by the government by introducing an education system that offers refresher courses to guarantee social workers' continued expertise through.
Education* ; Education, Distance ; Hope ; Hospice Care ; Hospices* ; Humans ; Korea ; Palliative Care* ; Social Workers* ; Specialization ; Terminal Care

The inclusion of the physically impaired learners in the mainstream education has, lately, become a public concern as their manifold struggles will make or break their success academically. Despite this, there is a lack of action to address the problem as evidenced by the absence of a disability perspective in the Philippine context. This study, optimistically, endeavors to serve as one of the voices (amongst many) of the physically impaired. The objective is to further urge the authorities to take into consideration their pressing concerns.

This study utilized the descriptive phenomenological approach. The researcher employed purposive sampling with the following criteria: students from a public school who are in the mainstream; those who are willing to participate; are mentally sound and; those with consent from the schools they are attending and from their guardians. The researcher utilized interview to gather data from the respondents. Documentations and audio recording were used to facilitate the data gathering. This research has gained ethical approval from the UC-IERC.

Data were analyzed using the thematic analysis. Results revealed that the difficulties of the physically impaired learners vary and are dependent on the extent of their impairment. Exploring the verbatim accounts of the six (6) participants, the researcher extracted significant statements and organized the formalized meanings into clusters of themes. Three themes emerged from the data generated in the course of conversation with the physically impaired learners. The three themes are- "Cross to bear"; "Callous consideration", and; "Mind over body".

In conclusion, the participants were found to have common problems and difficulties with respect to their education. They struggled much with the physical structure of the school environment, inconsiderate classmates, lack of social acceptance, and the problem on the curriculum they have. As such, the researcher recommends that there shall be re-structuring of the guidelines or policies for the disabled students in the mainstream. With this, the physically impaired learners could have equal opportunities with the physically able. Further, the teachers and physically able students will be informed on how to help and accommodate children with disabilities. Because of the limitations of the study, the researcher recognizes that the findings may not be applied to other locale and to others with physical impairment. Thus, it is strongly recommended that a further study should be done considering a wider setting and population.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Child ; Ursidae ; Research Personnel ; Social Distance ; Disabled Children ; Philippines ; Mainstreaming (education) ; Schools ; Students ; Surveys And Questionnaires ; Documentation

This study was performed to investigate differences between children who did and did not experience peer rejection in psychological state through surveys and in emotion processing during an interpersonal stress challenge task to reflect naturalistic interpersonal face-to-face relationships. A total of 20 right-handed children, 10 to 12 yr of age, completed self-rating questionnaires inquiring about peer rejection in school, depression, and anxiety. They then underwent an interpersonal stress challenge task simulating conditions of emotional stress, in reaction to positive, negative and neutral facial expression stimuli, using interpersonal feedbacks, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) for an analysis of neural correlates during the task. Ten were the peer-rejection group, whereas the remainder were the control group. Based on the behavioral results, the peer-rejection group exhibited elevated levels of depression, state anxiety, trait anxiety and social anxiety as compared to the control group. The FMRI results revealed that the peer-rejection group exhibited greater and remarkably more extensive activation of brain regions encompassing the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in response to negative feedback stimuli of emotional faces. The different brain reactivities characterizing emotion processing during interpersonal relationships may be present between children who do and do not experience peer rejection.
Anxiety ; Brain/*physiology ; Brain Mapping ; Child ; Depression ; *Emotions ; Facial Expression ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Peer Group ; Questionnaires ; *Social Distance

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting the social distance between minority groups and nursing cadets. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey design was used. A questionnaire was distributed to the entire Armed Forces Nursing Academy cadets. Data from 273 nursing cadets were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and Stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS: Social distance had positive correlations with collective identity (r=.28) and multiculturalism (r=.37). A negative correlation was found between social distance and perceived threat (r=-.38). Perceived threat, multiculturalism, collective identity, and frequency of contact with minorities were identified as factors affecting the social distance. The model explained 24% of the variables. CONCLUSION: To effectively respond to the minority groups' nursing needs in the army, educational programs which help to reduce the perceived threat, to strengthen multiculturalism, and to establish a healthy collective identity of nursing cadets need to be developed.
Arm ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Cultural Diversity ; Minority Groups* ; Nursing* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Social Distance*

OBJECTIVES: This paper outlines a new method of teaching health informatics to large numbers of students from around the world through a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). METHODS: The Health Informatics Forum is one of examples of MOOCs through a social networking site for educating health informatics students and professionals. It is running a MOOC for students from around the world that uses creative commons licenced content funded by the US government and developed by five US universities. The content is delivered through narrated lectures with slides that can be viewed online with discussion threads on the forum for class interactions. Students can maintain a professional profile, upload photos and files, write their own blog posts and post discussion threads on the forum. RESULTS: The Health Informatics Forum MOOC has been accessed by 11,316 unique users from 127 countries from August 2, 2012 to January 24, 2014. Most users accessed the MOOC via a desktop computer, followed by tablets and mobile devices and 55% of users were female. Over 400,000 unique users have now accessed the wider Health Informatics Forum since it was established in 2008. CONCLUSIONS: Advances in health informatics and educational technology have both created a demand for online learning material in health informatics and a solution for providing it. By using a MOOC delivered through a social networking platform it is hoped that high quality health informatics education will be able to be delivered to a large global audience of future health informaticians without cost.
Blogging ; Computer-Assisted Instruction ; Education* ; Education, Distance ; Education, Professional ; Educational Technology ; Female ; Financial Management ; Hope ; Humans ; Informatics* ; Learning ; Lectures ; Medical Informatics ; Running ; Social Media ; Tablets