Popular social media as a tool for enhancing community-based end-of-life care education for healthcare professionals: a formative study.

ALTERNATIVE education; ATTITUDE (Psychology); MEDICAL personnel; QUESTIONNAIRES; RESEARCH funding; INDUSTRIAL research; STATISTICAL sampling; TERMINAL care; SOCIAL media; EDUCATIONAL outcomes; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics

The purpose of this study is twofold: to assess the acceptance and usefulness of Nagoya University Small Private Online Courses, which is an online end-of-life care educational program through popular social media designed to supplement traditional end-of-life care education among healthcare professionals and to get constructive feedback with the aim of enhancing the impact of the program on fundamental knowledge of and attitudes toward end-of-life care provision. All 107 participants nationwide enrolled in this educational program completed the entire study. We found evidence of the beneficial effect of the social media strategies on participants’ knowledge and practice toward end-of-life care. In addition, data analyses provided insights into modifiable factors associated with learners’ active participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]