Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 1 Fanshawe College, London, Ottawa Paramedic Service, Ontario, Canada
2 1 Fanshawe College, London Monash University, Melbourne, CQUniversity, Queensland, Australia
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Twitter® use among paramedics and other prehospital care clinicians is
on the rise and is increasingly being used as a platform for continuing education and international
collaboration. In 2014, the hashtag #FOAMems was registered. It is used for the sharing of emergency
medical services, paramedicine, and prehospital care‑related content. It is a component of the ‘free
open‑access meducation’ (FOAM) movement. The aim of this study was to characterize and evaluate
the content of #FOAMems tweets since registration.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: An analytical report for #FOAMems was generated on symplur.com
from February 4, 2014, to April 30, 2017. A transcript of all #FOAMems tweets for a randomly selected
1 month period (October 2015) was generated, and quantitative content analysis was performed by
two reviewers. Tweets were categorized according to source (original tweet/retweet) and whether
referenced. The top 92 tweeters were analyzed for professional identity.
RESULTS: During the study period, there were over 99,000 tweets containing #FOAMems, by
over 9,200 participants. These resulted in almost 144 million impressions. Of the top 92 tweeters,
50 were paramedics (54%). Tweets were mainly related to cardiac (23%), leadership (19%), and
trauma (14%). The 1‑month period resulted in 649 original tweets, with 2110 retweets; 1070 of these
were referenced.
CONCLUSION: Paramedics are engaging with both clinical and nonclinical content on Twitter® using
#FOAMems. Social media resources are widely shared, which is in line with the FOAM movement’s
philosophy. However, opportunities exist for paramedics to share further diverse resources supported
by referenced material.
Keywords
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