Comportamientos éticos relacionados con el uso de redes sociales en estudiantes de séptimo a décimo semestre de la facultad de odontología de la Universidad Santo Tomás

Abstract

Introduction: Nowadays, social networks are a practical, easy and useful tool for health professionals who use them as a digital strategy for their treatments and advertising, which promotes a benefit for their professional practice. Health professionals require an ethical practice that does not exclude social networks to avoid being involved in legal matters. The dentist must respect the privacy of patients, avoiding the publication of photographs without authorisation, which is classified as inappropriate behaviour, generating legal problems by violating patient confidentiality. Objective: To identify the ethical and legal behaviour that is evident in the use of social networks by dental students. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out to characterise the dental students at the Universidad Santo Tomás. Of the 333 students of the faculty of dentistry 179 completed the survey designed in Google Forms. A questionnaire was designed with 4 dimensions; Socio-demographic with 9 questions, Use of networks with 12 questions, Performance in networks with 21 questions and Confidentiality with 9 items; for a total of 51 items. A checklist to identify ethical compliance with 15 items regarding the use of social networks was applied and carried out by the researchers to assess the content of the surveyed students' networks. Once participation and informed consent were accepted, the data were collected in Excel and analysed in STATA 14IC. The project was endorsed by the research committee of the USTA School of Dentistry. Results: The questionnaire was answered by more women with 83.7%, with the average age of participants being 22. It was found that most participants preferred WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. Most of the students almost always ask their patients if they can publish information that has been sent to them privately and they assure that their behaviour maintains patient confidentiality. Most know what sensitive information is, the risks of posting information about their patients on social networks, and they keep their patients' information and identity protected. According to the questionnaire applied by the researchers where the use of social networks was evaluated, it was found that 10.58% publish professional content on their networks. On the other hand, 30.77% upload photos with their patients, 11% publish photos of underage patients. Likewise, 25% upload photos of their patients alone, only 10.58% protect the identity of their patients and only 3.85% do not identify the people appearing in their photos and 32% do not mention the patient's authorization. Conclusions: Publishing photos of patients without protecting their identity, photos of minors without mentioning parental authorisation and appearing in networks as a health professional and not as a student are the most obvious ethical and legal risk behaviours.