COVID-19 and use of social media in medical education

Introduction: Social media (SM), as technological platforms, allow people and institutions to interact, share content and form communities. Objective: To recognize how teachers of the Faculty of Medicine of the UPB perceive the use of SM under the circumstances imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic. Methods: A qualitative research with an ethnomethodology approach was used; A questionnaire with open questions was applied to 24 teaching participants with more than 3 years of work at the faculty and who, prior to the social isolation imposed by COVID19, made use of SM. The analysis was done by comparing the data. Results: The pandemic favored the generalization of the use of specialized SM in academic communities, the continuity of teaching activities, time savings on travel, increased counseling for students and immediate and permanent access to educational content. In turn, this contingency showed the loss of non-verbal communication and, with regard to medical education, the impossibility of replacing the clinical practice and the interaction between Medical teacher – student-patient. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it the appropriation by teachers of specialized SM and with this give continuity to the teaching activities; The support of these networks to the educational process was evidenced without considering them as substitutes for face-to-face presence.