Using Twitter to teach Public Health to undergraduate medical students - #fluscenario

Dr Ellie HothersallTheme Lead for Public HealthDeputy Convenor Systems in PracticeLocum Consultant in Public Health

e.hothersall@dundee.ac.uk @DundeePublicH

The challengePublic Health is “common sense”EasyConcepts rather than factsHard to assessDifficult to get engagement from majority

The solution?•Get ‘em while they’re young•Try to develop conversations not teach

facts•Make it relevant and engaging

#fluscenario•Online•Done in Private Study•Using familiar social media

•Low input required from staff•Peer support

Origins of #fluscenario•Based on previous work by nhssm.org•Original scenarios written by Mr Alex

Talbott and Dr Chloe Sellwood •Twitter chat with Social Media emphasis•Easy to tweak to student focus

•We gave the option of using Twitter or a secure blog or email for responding

Purpose of #fluscenario•To introduce you to pandemic ‘flu and

emergency planning•To develop an online learning conversation

•(To understand there is more to public health than drinking water and inequalities)

•(To understand how social media will influence your professional life)

OutlinePhase

1

• Background• Preparation

Phase 2

• Early outbreak• Communication and risk

Phase 3

• Late outbreak• Prevention and mitigation

Phase 4

• Wrap up• Lessons learned

OutlinePhase

1

• Background• Preparation

Phase 2

• Early outbreak• Communication and risk

Phase 3

• Late outbreak• Prevention and mitigation

Phase 4

• Wrap up• Lessons learned

Background/Early warningAssumptions in planning (e.g. 50% affected, 4% hospitalised)

Link to early BBC coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8017777.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8021483.stmSpread internationally: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8019364.stm

Questions for discussione.g. What could you be doing now to get ready?

OutlinePhase

1

• Background• Preparation

Phase 2

• Early outbreak• Communication and risk

Phase 3

• Late outbreak• Prevention and mitigation

Phase 4

• Wrap up• Lessons learned

OutlinePhase

1

• Background• Preparation

Phase 2

• Early outbreak• Communication and risk

Phase 3

• Late outbreak• Prevention and mitigation

Phase 4

• Wrap up• Lessons learned

OutlinePhase

1

• Background• Preparation

Phase 2

• Early outbreak• Communication and risk

Phase 3

• Late outbreak• Prevention and mitigation

Phase 4

• Wrap up• Lessons learned

What happened?•2,987 Tweets using the hashtag

#fluscenario•Contributions from staff, students, others•Mean number of Tweets per student was

13.8 (range 1-88). •Peak Twitter activity was in the first 12

hours, with >1,000 Tweets within 8 hours of launching the first scenario.

Evaluation•“did not understand the point of the

exercise”•“waste of time”

•“I enjoyed using twitter as a new way of teaching and I feel like I learnt a lot from the opportunity to discuss the flu scenario with my peers.”

“Whooping cough: Three more babies die in outbreak http://t.co/VXAIC5Bu #fluscenario”

“Reading about the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB and automatically relating this to the spread of #fluscenario. Hello Library Weekends.”

View from the outside

Next time?Better evaluationBuild ethics and communications in specificallyAsk students to identify key learning points

Get the students using Twitter earlier to “win them over” (e.g. #dundeeprn)

PLUS content/context analysis of tweets

Get involved!

Next run will be November 2013

#fluscenario@DundeePublicH