Exploring Social Media Adoption By Nurses For Nursing Practice In Catholic Hospital Battor In The North Tongu District Of Volta Region, Ghana

Abstract

There is an ongoing social media technological revolution globally and this is impacting people’s approach to work and organizational outputs. The health care industry is not left out of this intriguing, drastic, and far-reaching change that social media has brought forth. Healthcare organizations and individuals are said to be adopting social media for nursing care in Ghana. It remains largely undetermined the factors influencing nurses in the Catholic Hospital Battor to adopt social media to enhance nursing care. The study, therefore, seeks to explore social media adoption by nurses for nursing care in Catholic Hospital Battor using the technology acceptance model as the guiding framework. An exploratory descriptive qualitative study design with a purposive sampling technique was employed to recruit twelve (12) participants for the study. A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct in-depth interviews which were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data with NVivo. The findings revealed that nurses found social media to be useful for the accomplishment of nursing tasks, dissemination, and reception of information, professional development and enhanced referral networks. Apart from its usefulness, participants believe it is easy to navigate its apps, clear and understandable to use and its usage in nursing does not involve much mental effort hence their favourable attitude toward use. Notwithstanding, some participants also believe that inaccurate information, privacy and confidentiality concerns, distraction, and addiction were some potential risks that are associated with its usage in nursing practice. Due to this, some participants developed a negative attitude toward its usage as a result of the unpleasant experience they have with its usage. This study, therefore, recommends prudential use of social media in health institutions. It also advocates for the development of policies to govern its use in healthcare facilities.