Students' attitudes towards Facebook and online professionalism: subject discipline, age and gender differences

The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes towards the use of Facebook and online professionalism among students studying three health and social care courses at a UK university. The increasing popularity of social networking sites (SNS) has changed the way people manage information about their personal and professional lives. Previous studies have considered how medical students use Facebook, but there is a paucity of research looking at other professional disciplines; either individually or exploring whether there are inter-professional differences. An anonymous online survey was completed by 595 students at one UK university; pharmacy (n = 91, 15%), social work (n = 166, 28%) and nursing students (n = 338, 57%) across all years of the courses. Significant differences were found with regard to attitudes towards Facebook and online professionalism between the subject disciplines, year of study, age and gender of the students. Findings suggest more education and guidance is needed to provide students with the appropriate knowledge of how to maintain professionalism in an online context