SoMe, SoWhat? #SoEssential: using social media as a key learning and teaching tool

The growth of social media in the last 24 months, never mind the last decade, has been simply phenomenal. As the number of social media sites grows exponentially—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat—their use in health care poses both challenges and risks, but more importantly, potential. This potential allows users to influence, comment, market and grow identity, as well as enhance and embed digital literacy, professionalism and identity in a global, 24/7 professional world.

There is always someone, somewhere, tweeting and chatting about paramedics and their potential to enhance the quality of care they can offer to service users. In this article, we take two views: one from an academic and one from a student perspective, about how social media has, can, and will influence the education, digital literacy and digital professionalism of parmamedics, now and in the globalised paramedic workforce.

Teesside University has a Facebook page and dedicated Twitter feed (@teesparamedic) which complement our school feed (@teesuniSOHSC). We have embraced social media across all of our paramedic programmes with successful results. This success has also been shared by our students, who introduced a public facing Facebook and Twitter (@TeesParaSociety) presence independently of the university and programme.