Use of Internet and social media as a new communication medium among nurses

Abstract

This study was planned with the aim of determining the usage of the Internet and social media among the nurses at the Centre of Health Research and Practice at the University of Mersin, in addition to investigating its contribution to their professional development and evaluating the usage of social media in an ethical perspective. Nurses as an employee group work very closely with society and provide services to healthy and ill individuals. They have been increasingly using both Internet and social media sources while undertaking their roles. This study is a descriptive study. A questionnaire was supplied to 260 nurses who were on duty at the hospital while the data was being collected and who agreed to participate in the research. The data acquired was analyzed using the statistical methods of arithmetic averages, percentages, standard deviations (SD) and chi-square (X2). The results were evaluated using a confidence interval of 95%, with a level of significance of p<0.05. The nurses who stated that they use the Internet comprised 259 of the 260 nurses that participated, while 83.8% of them used social media. According to this study, the usage of the Internet and social media for professional development is also common. The majority of the nurses accept that the usage of social media has various risks and state that there is a need for informative studies directed towards more effective usage of these tools.