Perceptions of who is in the healthcare team? A content analysis of social media posts during COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Social media posts can be used to explore public perceptions of interprofessional teams and healthcare professionals. The aim of this study was to use social listening technique to explore unfiltered public perceptions of the professionals involved in healthcare teams during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a naturalistic online setting, and to elaborate on the emotional reactions in response to an online social media post. A cross-sectional retrospective review of comments on a specific social media post was conducted between 15 March and 28 April 2020 using summative content analysis. One image that was widely circulated on social media platforms with two questions: ‘Who society thinks works at hospital? versus who really works at hospitals?’ was selected. Three platforms were searched, Facebook®, Twitter®, and LinkedIn®. Only publicly available posts were included. Out of the initial 40 posts identified, 21 posts which had 1759 comments were analysed and 1576 were included for coding. Of the emerging nine themes, perceptions of who is in the team was the largest (40.5%, n = 639), followed by agreement (23.1%, n = 364) and feeling excluded (16.2%, n = 255). Of emotional expressions, 42.1% were positive and 57.9% negative. The most frequent emotions were frustration (54.4%, n = 857) followed by gratitude (16.3%, n = 257) and relief (15.9%, n = 250). The post brought considerable attention to the role of the interprofessional team and generated many feelings of frustration and exclusion. For this reason, the response to this social media post is very important and not to be overlooked. Healthcare professionals need to work together to strengthen their presence as an interprofessional team, united to deliver safe effective quality care for patients. The current COVID-19 pandemic and the media attention should be taken as an opportunity by the interprofessional community to work together to combat negative media stereotypes. Further research is warranted on public perceptions of the healthcare team.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional collaboration
• social Media
• content analysis
• COVID-19
• roles
• healthcare team

Acknowledgements

Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.

The authors wish to thank Dr Shobhana Nagraj for her comments on the draft of the manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alla El-Awaisi

Dr Alla El-Awaisi is the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at Qatar University College of Pharmacy and the Chair of the Interprofessional Education (IPE) program at QU Health. She is a leader and active researcher in IPE and collaborative practice since 2014. She led many successful IPE initiatives nationally and internationally, including chairing the First Middle East Conference in Interprofessional Education held in 2015 and now the chairperson of the 10th biennial conference of All Together Better Health (ATBH X) to be held in Qatar in October 2021. Dr Alla received her Master of Pharmacy degree from Strathclyde University in Glasgow (UK), MSc in Prescribing Science from the Robert Gordon University (UK) and PhD in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice from the Robert Gordon University (UK).

Veronica O’Carroll

Dr Veronica O'Carroll is a Lecturer and Registered Nurse (Adult) in the School of Medicine, University of St Andrews.  Since 2009, she has been involved in the design and implementation of interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional research in the academic and practice learning environment.  She is a Board Member of the UK Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) and is the lead of CAIPE’s research group.

Somaya Koraysh

Ms Somaya Koraysh recently graduated with BSc in Pharmacy from Qatar University College of Pharmacy (CPH) in spring 2020 and is currently pursuing Doctor of Pharmacy degree at CPH. She has completed the IPE program at CPH as an undergraduate student and participated in several IPE events. She completed another two research projects on patient safety and pharmacy education.

Sarra Koummich

Ms Sarra Koummich recently graduated with BSc in Pharmacy from Qatar University College of Pharmacy (CPH) in spring 2020 and is currently pursuing Doctor of Pharmacy degree at CPH. She has completed the IPE program at CPH as an undergraduate student and participated in several IPE events. She completed another two research projects on patient safety and pharmaceutical delivery.

Marion Huber

Professor Marion Huber has been the deputy head of Interprofessional Learning and Practice at the Department of Health at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland since 2009. She also leads the research thematic unit “Interprofessionalism” at the same place. Marion is a member of the UK Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) research group, and a member of CAIPE's international liaison group.  Her main research focus lies in competencies for interprofessional education and collaboration. Marion is globally networked in the field of research for interprofessionalism.