Social Media in Healthcare: An Empirical Study

Running head: NURSING1
Nursing
Name of student:
Name of university:
Author note:

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HEALTHCARE
Study aim and research question
The present era is witnessing an accelerating rise in the use of social media by
professionals from different field, including nursing. Research indicates that nurses and other
healthcare professionals are using social media at different junctures of their practice. Nurses
use different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter amongst others to communicate with each
other and share information, opinions, experiences and thoughts. Social media shore up
participation, permitting for open communication. The utilisation of social media by
Australian and New Zealand new nursing and midwifery graduates had not been studied
previously (Nemeth et al. 2016). Tuckett and Turner (2015) conducted research aimed at
studying the details of the utilisation of social media by this group of nurses and gauging their
level of awareness of professional standards and policies leading the utilization of social
media within their profession. In the research under scrutiny, the research question addressed
by the researchers is – “Does increase uptake of social media by Australian, and New
Zealand new nursing and midwifery graduates have a positive influence on their nursing
practice?”
Design
The study conducted by Tuckett and Turner (2015) constituted a sub-study of the
Graduate e-Cohort Study (GeS) that used the survey design. The study was perceived as a
segment of the studies using the e-cohort web platform whose creator was former School of
Nursing and Midwifery, the University of Queensland. The larger GeS study was carried out
with the underlying purpose of undertaking an analysis of the selection of graduate midwives
and nurses from the universities with regards to the employment after completing graduation
as well as in the coming years. Research guidelines indicate that the use of survey design has
certain limitations to it as reliability depends on a number of factors. The participants might

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not be encouraged to express their views. In addition, they might not feel comfortable in
answering the questions presenting themselves. Chances of data errors also exist as a result of
question non-response. Nevertheless, a broad range of data can be collected through this
method and a larger number of participants can be involved (Houser 2016).
Sampling
A total number of 121 participants enrolled in this study. Out of this, 96% were
women, and 93% of the total population was registered nurses graduating in two different
years. The sample size was divided, with 54% receiving their respective degree in New
Zealand and 46% in Australia. 92% were employed as midwife or nurse. The sample
characteristics included employment status, employment organization, country of
employment, and work setting. The authors do no mention the sampling method for final
selection of the study population. This factor is important since sampling method influences
bias and increases the chances of obtaining results that are not generalizable (LoBiondo-
Wood and Haber 2017). Further, the majority of the participants being women, there are
chances of gender bias. The evidence gathered from the study might have been fundamentally
flawed owing to such form of bias (Holloway and Galvin 2016). In addition, not all the
participants were employed at the time of taking part in the studying, implying that they were
not able to provide information in relation to workplace practice of using social media. To
add to this, it has not been mentioned clearly regarding the sample size for midwives and that
for nurses.
Ethical considerations
Ethical principles are elementary to research undertaken with human participants.
These attributes are to be abided by for eliminating the risks of any unjustified or prejudiced
incidents. The graduate nurses and midwives were given out an invitation in a written format