Abstract

Social media are now providing a space to discuss medical conditions outside of the healthcare providers’ office. Patients and their families use social media technologies to share their experiences and their findings and educate others with similar conditions.

Social media provides a forum for reporting personal experiences, asking questions, and receiving direct feedback for people living with a disease. The study examined the perception and use of social media by health workers for information sharing in the Buea Health Area.

Specifically, the study tries to find out health workers’ perception on the use of social media for information sharing, to determine the frequency of the use of social media for information sharing by health workers and assess the influence of the perception of the health workers on their use of social media for information sharing. In order to achieve these study objectives, a simple random sampling technique was employed to sample 100 health practitioners using a structures questionnaire from the Buea Health Area.

Data were analysed using frequencies and percentages in SPSS (21.0). Findings revealed that participants use social media platforms for sharing information related to health. Major social media commonly used were WhatsApp and Facebook. These social media platforms were mostly used for communication, research, sharing of health-related information, and for educational purposes.

The study also shows that participants find it good as health workers use social media for information sharing with patients and for administering treatment based on information gathered on social media on patients. It was also revealed that patient’s health lifestyles increase by 75% as a result of the use of social media platforms by healthcare practitioners.

Hypothesis testing shows that Information sharing on social media has an adverse effect on health workers and Patients’ perception of health workers’ use of social media in information sharing influences the patients’ response. It was recommended that health workers using social media should promote its use for sharing health research information.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

This chapter will constitute the background to the study, the statement of the problem, research objective, research questions, scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the delimitation of the study.

1.1 Background to the study

Information has always served as a backbone in communication both in our daily activities and organizations in the health sector in particular for as it holds, “information is power”. Every day people acquire information from various sources, especially from the internet and they transmit this information to others within or outside their social circles. As such information travels from person to person, organizations to organization, and from one social cluster to another.

In this day and age, interpersonal information distribution and collaboration on the internet occurs on a massive scale especially within health facilities like hospitals clinics, on social media platforms like Facebook and Whatsapp, where workers in health institutes share and express opinions and transmit vital information regardless of the geographical boundaries that set them apart.

Before sharing any information, we try to judge the outcome of the information whether it will be beneficial to the public or the person you sending to or if it’s just a waste of time. This means information is a conscious act based on the consideration of its personal and social consequences (Sohn, 2009). The essence of information sharing in organizations like the health sector is geared at identifying the problems that they face subsequently.

Therefore, information sharing is the act of transferring knowledge from one person to another or among many people with the intention of adding value to organizational activities (Mitchell, 2008). As the world web continues to evolve, there are many contexts to which information can take place which include hospital environments whose personnel are broadly classified into paramedical staff.

From the healthcare management perspective, it is important to harness and facilitate tacit knowledge sharing among clinical teams, particularly when they are not physically co-located but must exchange their critical experimental knowledge (Abidi, Cheah, and Curran, 2005).

According to the opinion and diverse views of scholars on information and information sharing, information sharing among health workers can therefore be the exchange of ideas on health care delivery on how to combat situations out of experience and make vital decisions for the benefit of all.

The advent of social media as the most common popular medium that is used for information sharing among health workers and also the highly digitalized computer-mediated tools allow people or organizations to create forums for constructive discussion, sharing information and ideas. (Safko and Brake, 2009) considered social media as the activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media. (Therefore, social media can be the social lifestyle of people in a disguised digitalized way).

The advent of advanced digitalized technologies has instigated the adoption and massive use of social media by health workers in hospitals and medical clinics. Information communication technology (ICT) is regarded as an important tool for increased efficiency (WHO, 1998; Little, 1992). Social media can be considered one of the most innovative and the most destructive medium which has surfaced in our world today and health care is not immune to it either.

Nowadays many people tend to follow the health care information on social media whether through advertising or interactions with other colleagues, hospitals and healthcare workers engage with one another via social media in their work fields.

Social media has proven to be a communication system for healthcare workers through which they can find patient health information and past medical history or they can review relevant information about illnesses. In terms of benefits, social media has provided healthcare providers a way with which to overcome barriers in delivering healthcare to patients, enhance self-management skills among patients who can familiarize themselves with a specific illnesses, and also provide numerous opportunities for providers to conduct research in their relevant fields. Nevertheless, there are some harmful outcomes of social media users especially to patients as most of them rely on the health information they see on social media.

Perception implies the ability of an individual to view and comprehend particular information to his or her judgment. While observers have focused on the use of social media, little is mention about the perception of social media and the actors involved. Perception also involves the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment (Schacter 2011).

Perception is the key component theoretical framework used by health workers. Conflicts between a nurse or a doctor and a client’s perception can lead to miscommunication and suboptimal outcomes. A well-known conceptual structure for understanding what drives a persons’ decision is the “health belief model”.

The model holds that the key elements to taking health actions are the individual’s perception of susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers in regards to their health (Daddario, 2007). Perceived benefits of action, barriers to action, and self-efficacy are elements of the behavior-specific cognitions and affect component of the Pender Health Promotion Model (Pender, Murdaugh, & Parsons, 2002).

To improve on healthcare outcomes and healthcare deliveries, it is necessary to appreciate the uniqueness of a person’s perception and to comprehend how perceptions are formed. With all the intriguing facts presented above to support this study, the overall aim of this work is to find out the Perception and use of social media by health workers for information sharing in the Buea Health Area.

Previous studies on social media use for information sharing among health workers have proven different effects of social media use by patients for health-related reasons within the health care system. The use of social media for information sharing by health workers for health-related purposes provides different effects, which can result in both benefits and challenges.

It is important to spot these effects of social media for healthcare information purposes, as a growing percentage of health workers now rely on social media for information so health workers will have to reflect on the alleged beneficial effects and the potentially harmful effects of social media use by patients in healthcare. In a 2013 systematic review, Moorhood et al identified seven key ways that social media are being used in healthcare:

1. To provide information on the range of issues
2. To provide answers to medical questions
3. To facilitate dialogues between patients and health professionals
4. To collect data on patients’ experiences and opinions
5. To use social media as a health intervention, for health promotion and health education
6. To reduce illness stigma and
7. To provide a mechanism for online consultations

Perception refers to the individual opinions of peoples’ views of the world. The aim of this study is to conduct an empirical and qualitative review to find out the perception of the use of social media by health workers for information sharing in the Buea health area.

1.2 Statement of The Problem

There is a paradigm shift in information sharing mechanisms among health workers from traditional ways to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platforms such as social media (Eguavoen 2017). There is massive use of social media platforms for information by health workers, this is due to the high advancement of ICT in our era today.

Most health workers like doctors, nurses and other practitioners involved in the field have complex views and perceptions concerning information that is posted on social media. There are both positive and negative perceptions to this.  Some health practitioners welcome this advanced digitalized era of extracting health care information from social media platforms to aid them in combat situations and also to learn new ideas from other health workers around the globe. If such integration occurs the world would be a better place, patients will no longer suffer from unknown diseases without a cure we take the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as an example.

However, is it worth noting that there are some propounding negative perceptions to the use of social media for information by health workers? According to the qualifications of a degree in health, it is supposed to be 100% correct with no mistake since it has to do with human lives.

On social media, not every piece of information on health care is correct. There’s a misperception to this study since people have complex opinions and perceptions concerning health information that is posted on social media.

Cameroon for instance does not support drug advertisement. This is done to avoid cases of drug abuse and misuse of drugs, so they want things to be done at the professional level.  It is based on all these facts that this study seeks to find out the perception of the use of social media by health workers for information sharing in the Buea health area.

1.3 Research Questions

1. How are the perception and use of social media information sharing among health workers in Buea?
2. What is the frequency of use of social media for information sharing by health workers in Buea?
3. Why is there a sudden upsurge in the use of social media platforms by health workers in information sharing?