Study: Social media has helped careers of NPs, PAs

Slightly less than half of nurse practitioners (NP) and physician assistants (PA) responding to a recent survey said they use some form of social media for business (45%), whereas two-thirds reported some form of personal use, The Clinical Advisor reported on its website. The Clinical Advisor Social Media Survey of 350 NPs and PAs in August and September 2014, sought to gauge NPs’ and PAs’ use of well-known social media services Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Doximity.

Although Doximity and LinkedIn were the social networks users most favored for business purposes, only 4% of respondents said they actually used Doximity, whereas 57% used LinkedIn. Forty-eight percent of respondents reported using LinkedIn for business purposes, ahead of Google+ (used for business by 36% of respondents) and Facebook (26%). NPs made up 70% of respondents. In terms of age, 49% of participants were 35-54 years old, and those age 55-64 years accounted for 30%. Forty-two percent of respondents worked in office practices, followed by stand-alone clinics (18%), hospital clinics (17%), and hospitals (16%).

Source: The Clinical Advisor