Effectiveness of health communication courses on professionalism and social media competence among nursing students: A randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The shaping and cultivation of professionalism of nursing students is very important for the improvement and retention of nursing workers' quality. In the context of social media, it is challenging for nursing students to use social media for health education. Health communication course has the potential to cultivate professionalism and social media competence of nursing students, but its role still needs to be explored. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of health communication course intervention on improving the professionalism and social media competence of nursing students. DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial. METHODS: The recruited nursing students were randomly divided into the intervention group (N = 50) and the control group (N = 51). The control group received routine nursing education. Intervention group received routine nursing education and health communication education courses. Both groups were required to submit a health communication work on any topic. The Nursing Professionalism Scale、Social Media Self-efficacy Scale and Social Media Experience Scale were used to evaluate the professionalism and social media competence of nursing students. The primary analysis used linear mixed models and followed the intention-to-treat principle. RESULTS: The professionalism, social media self-efficacy and social media experience of students in the two groups were significantly improved, and the improvement of nursing students in the intervention group was higher than that in the control group. After the intervention of health communication course, there were significant differences in professionalism (p < 0.001), social media self-efficacy (p = 0.006) and social media experience (p = 0.013) between the two groups. Social media self-efficacy have an effect on professionalism (ꞵ = 0.22, p < 0.001, 95 % CI 0.17-0.26). CONCLUSION: The health communication course significantly improved social media competence and professionalism, which was significantly different from the control group, revealing the educational value of the intervention. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER ChiCTR2200058425.