Clicks for credit: an analysis of healthcare professionals’ social media use and potential for continuing professional development activities

Figures & data

Table 1. General participant demographics of the 2023 CEA survey.

		n	%
Profession	Advanced practice provider^a	335	12.8
	Nurse	340	13.0
	Pharmacist	274	10.5
	Physician	1322	50.6
	Other^b	344	13.1
Specialty^c	Nonsurgical specialties	2418	92.4
	Supporting specialties	107	4
	Surgical specialties	90	3.4
Experience	1–5 years	226	8.6
	6–15 years	546	20.9
	More than 15 years	1843	70.5
Practice setting	Urban	1559	59.6
	Suburban	734	28.1
	Rural	322	12.3
Use social media	Yes	1862	71.2
	No	753	28.8

^aAdvanced practice providers include advanced practice nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician associates.

^b‘Other’ included respondents who had selected other, dieticians, pharmacy technicians, psychologists, and social workers.

^cA breakdown of all specialties can be found in the supplemental materials.

Figure 1. Social media use among HCP participants.

Figure 2. Professional uses of social media among HCPs.

Table 2. Associations between respondent characteristics and the use of social media for CPD activities.

		No. (%) of Yes	No. (%) of No	P value
Experience (n=1602)	1–5 years	67 (4.2)	82 (5.1)	0.164
	6–15 years	183 (11.4)	179 (11.2)
	More than 15 years	578 (36.1)	513 (32.0)
Setting (n=1602)	Urban*	475 (29.7)	513 (32.0)	.001
	Suburban*	233 (14.5)	171 (10.7)
	Rural*	120 (7.5)	90 (5.6)
Social media use per week (n=1602)	Less than 3 hours*	260 (16.2)	300 (18.7)	.004
	3–7 hours	322 (20.1)	297 (18.5)
	8–14 hours*	172 (10.7)	123 (7.7)
	More than 14 hours	74 (4.6)	54 (3.4)
Reason for use (n=1602)	Professional*	83 (5.2)	115 (7.2)	<.001
	Personal*	137 (8.6)	181 (11.3)
	Both*	608 (38.0	478 (29.8)
When do you use social media? (n=1602)	Home	466 (29.1)	467 (29.2)	.015
	Work*	13 (0.8)	24 (1.5)
	Both*	349 (21.8)	283 (17.7)
Believe medical information from social media is credible (n=1602)	Yes	233 (14.5)	227 (14.2)	<.001
	No*	116 (7.2)	178 (11.1)
	Only if the information was from a clinically focused platform*	479 (30.0)	369 (23.0)
How likely are you to use social media in your practice in the next 5 years? (n=1573)	More likely to use	432 (27.5)	395 (25.1)	<.001
	Less likely to use*	73 (4.6)	117 (7.4)
	Same amount of usage	310 (19.7)	246 (15.6)

*Indicates a statistically significant relationship between categories.