PhysioGuru

Recently, in one of the forums I regularly visit, I came across this question as to the need for online social networking for physiotherapists. The thread starter took a very pessimistic view and posted a few examples of nurses and other clinicians being fired because of posting information about their employers on facebook.

The discussion was then taken up by another physiotherapist who quite felt the same. She envisaged a theory that face to face peer discussion is much better than social networking. She was of the opinion that social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and thousands of others all are used only for entertainment purposes and could serve no useful purpose for a focussed professional mind. She was of the view that there were far too many distractions on the social networking sites to allow constructive professional development.

I, for one have been using Orkut for about 5 years now. My forays into Facebook have also been going on for about 2 years. I am a recent Twitterer, though I must accept that I have not yet got a hang of it. My list of online friends is above 1000, though I would not be able to recognise 80% of them, if we met in real life.

Seeing such remarks from seasoned clinicians, it was time for introspection. The immediate question which came to my mind were- Am I addicted to social networking sites? Am I losing valuable time and human contact? Am I gaining anything in return? Therefore, I looked at the pro’s and con’s of social networking for physiotherapists.

Pro’s –

1. Professional link building – Social networks provide us the opportunity to link up with like minded professionals and to be able to share knowledge, discuss issues and learn from other’s experiences. These can be from the same profession or even interdisciplinary and interprofessional networks.

2. Expanding Horizons – As internet has shrunk the world, it is very easy to find people on the other side of globe, who might be doing the same things as you and thinking up the same ideas as you. If not for internet, you would never know that.

3. Forums – There are thousands of forums related to physiotherapy, where you can ask your questions and there are enthusiastic people who are willing to support and answer your questions, providing you with up to date information.

4. Collaboration – The most important benefit of social networking is collaboration in development of ideas. This can lead to further joint research, multi center trials and things that could never be imagined earlier. So a physiotherapist in Canada can now also gather data from India and use it in his survey study by finding a co author from India. Similarly, a physiotherapist in United Kingdom can guide and provide information about the latest clinical techniques to a colleague in Pakistan, which would otherwise not be available there.

5. Career Advice – Students have been using internet and social networks to find professionals settled in their careers and seeking advice on the best ways to progress their careers. This provides them the opportunity to listen to the people who have passed the same stage in their careers and learn about the challenges they faced and how best to overcome them.

6. Reaching out to service users – If you provide a service, including a clinical practice, social networks can help in brand building and projecting your services to the potential clients. Thus joining local networks can be a useful way for the clinic owners to publicise their clinics free of cost.

Cons’ – Now like everything, social networking has its own set of negatives as well.

1. Confidentiality – It is important to use the social networks responsibly and not to disclose the confidential information related to your employer or patients. A breach of confidentiality can lead to serious problems in your career. The example of nurses provided in the introduction falls under this category.

2. Time Wasting – Social networks including Orkut and Facebook are designed to make the users spend more and more time on them. Thus, it can take up considerable amount of your time, without any productivity. The best way to handle it is to prioritize your work, if you want to interact with online peers, set some time for it and stick to it.

3. Health – Health is also an important concern, as being in front of a computer for long periods of time doesn’t help your physical fitness. It is important to take regular breaks by walking away from the computer for some time.

As seen from above points, though social networking has its own set of flaws, the gains which can be achieved far outweigh them. Thus, it is imperative that like any other addictive substance, internet and social networking is used responsibly.

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