Integrating Education, Research and Human Caring via Web 2.0 for Healthcare Professionals

Health care professional educators are becoming more aware of the benefits associated with the application of social media tools, such as the popular online platforms, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Wikieducator and Skype for today’s healthcare providers and students. There has been an increase in the number of publications regarding the use of social media tools in professional education, however there is a lack of evidence of the overall benefits provided by these online social platforms and guidelines on how to use the media to improve student learning outcomes. Furthermore, due to the generational gap between senior faculty and today’s millennial learner there may be hesitancy for some healthcare faculty to endeavor the use of social media (Roberts, Newman & Schwartzstein, 2012). Therefore, a current review of the literature and presentation of the integration of the use of social media in professional education will be presented to the audience.