Show Notes
Description
Dr Melissa Quinn visits the studio as we consider the use of social media in academic medicine… with an emphasis on supporting medical learners through these platforms. Social media engagement can promote wellness, amplify accomplishments, and expand one’s career footprint. Tune in to learn how!
Topic
Using Social Media to Engage Medical Learners
Learning Objectives
At the end of this activity, participants should be able to:
- Describe key strategies for engaging medical learners through social media.
- Analyze the benefits and challenges of social media use in academic medicine.
- Evaluate how digital engagement can contribute to professional identity and national reputation.
- Design a personal framework for intentional and sustainable social media participation.
FD-ED Credit
This episode is approved for FD-ED credit through the Center for Faculty Development at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. FD-ED credit expires 3 years from this episode’s release date.
Guest
Dr Melissa Quinn
Biomedical Education and Anatomy
The Ohio State University College of Medicine
Links
Center for Faculty Advancement, Mentoring, and Engagement
Episode Transcript
[Dr Mike Patrick]
This episode of FAMEcast is brought to you by the Center for Faculty Advancement, Mentoring and Engagement at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
[MUSIC]
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of FAMEcast. We are a faculty development podcast from The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
This is Dr. Mike coming to you from the campus of Ohio State. It’s episode 19. We’re calling this one Using Social Media to Engage Medical Learners.
I want to welcome all of you to the program. We are so happy to have you with us. You know, social media can feel time-consuming, chaotic, distracting, and even professionally risky at times.
But for many academic faculty, social media has become a powerful tool for mentorship, visibility, and community building. Today on FAMEcast, we will explore how social media can be used intentionally to engage medical learners, promote wellness, amplify accomplishments and expand one’s academic footprint. We’ll talk about platforms, strategy, boundaries, personal wellness and how thoughtful digital engagement can strengthen our role as educators.
Of course, in our usual FAMEcast fashion, we have a terrific guest joining us in the studio to discuss the topic. That person is Dr. Melissa Quinn. She is an associate professor of biomedical education and anatomy at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
I do want to remind you if your institution or department requires faculty development education credit, also known as FD-ED, well then, we have good news for you. Select episodes of FAMEcast, ones that deal with teaching and learners. They come with FD-ED credit from the Center for Faculty Development at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
And it is really easy to claim credit. Simply listen to the podcast, which you’re about to do. Look for the FD-ED link in the show notes for this episode over at FameCast.org.
Follow that link to Cloud CME, register or sign in to your free account. Take a brief survey. It’s in the materials tab and score the credit.
You can even download a transcript of your credits to share with your institution or department. And just some examples of other episodes that have had FD-ED. Our very first episode, number one was on mentorship and coaching in academic medicine.
Number seven was teaching on a busy clinical service. Number nine, the evolving role of artificial intelligence in medical education. 16 is creating safe, impactful space for medical learners.
And then episode 17 was tips and tricks for giving an engaging presentation. So, all of those do come along with faculty development credit, one hour of credit actually. And you can find links to all of those episodes in the show notes for this particular episode over at FameCast.org.
Also want to remind you the information presented in every episode of our podcast is for general educational purposes only your use of this audio program is subject to the FAMEcast terms of use agreement, which you can find at FameCast.org. So, let’s take a quick break. We’ll get Dr. Melissa Quinn settled into the studio, and then we will be back to talk about using social media to engage medical learners. It’s coming up right after this.
[MUSIC]
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Dr. Melissa Quinn is an associate professor of biomedical education and anatomy at the Ohio state university college of medicine. She serves as academic program co-director of part one of our LSI curriculum that stands for learn, serve and inspire.
She has a passion for supporting medical students as they complete the initial phase of medical school. And that support is appreciated because the first year is probably the toughest part of medical school. At least that was my experience.
Some say the amount of information students are expected to learn right out of the gate is like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose. Before we get to the conversation, let’s pause and offer a warm FAMEcast welcome to our guest, Dr. Melissa Quinn. Thank you so much for stopping by the studio today.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Thank you for having me, Mike. I’m super jazzed to have the opportunity to talk to you.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. And we’re really excited to have you here as well. You know, you are actually a beloved professor amongst your students.
And I think to some degree it’s because of the relationship that you cultivate with your students. Like they really know that you care about them. Can you just give us some background before we get started on who your learners are and the relationship that you try to build with them?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Yeah, of course I can. So, you know, I have a very unique position here in the College of Medicine within our division of anatomy. We see a lot of different learners.
Me in particular, I work very heavily with our, as you said, our medical students. So, I worked with them from their first year and some of them I actually get to see all the way until their fourth years. And even after some of them I continue to see when they go into the residency programs here at OSU.
So, I work heavily with those students, but we also have a very strong graduate program here. So, I have the opportunity to work with master’s students in anatomy and PhD students too, whether or not they’re looking as our program as a steppingstone for professional programming after, or they want to go on to academia or research from there. So, I really have a great position here.
And one of the things that’s really been important to me, not just as an educator, but through my whole life is really creating a safe space for people knowing that there’s someone here to cheer them on, even on those days where it might be tough. So, I really have had good educators that I’ve learned from. Of course there’s some that not, but I still learned some tips and tricks from them.
But one of the things that was really important to me were those educators that looked at me and treated me like a human and not just a student. So that’s something that really stuck with me to know that I want to be able to give that to the people that are students or learners that are coming up underneath me, that I want that to be a very important standpoint. And one of my biggest, I guess quotes that I really live by is that be somebody who treats everybody like a somebody.
And that’s what I really lean my or put my hat on is no matter who I’m working with, they know that I’m going to be there to support them and cheer them on no matter what stage training they might be in.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. So, so important and there is kind of a fine line there, isn’t there?
Like you want to support them, but you also want them to take the initiative and to do the hard work that you have to put in. And so, your relationship with them isn’t instead of that hard work, but you’re really encouraging them. And then the folks, you know, who may need a little extra push having that relationship with someone who cares, who’s invested, really can make the difference of, of passing or failing, honestly.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, even at that standpoint, I think failing is a learning process and it seems and it is heavy and hard because I’ve been there.
I’ve failed. I mean, if I haven’t, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. Right.
And I think it’s still important for those people to know that our students or learners or just humans in general, that the process is there, but there are and should be people to uplift you. And, you know, even in the position that I am in, if I do work with some students that do fail, I in no way, and I let them know this, look at them any differently. It’s just let’s see what we could do moving forward from there.
So, I think letting them know that failing is a process, but there’s a human aspect to it. I think in having an empathetic year is really important.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. Now you have taken that philosophy of engagement and support and caring and, and it’s obviously in the classroom.
I mean, when you are in the anatomy lab, when you’re with your students, you know, you’re cultivating that relationship, but you’ve taken it outside of the classroom and also provide that support on social media. So, could you kind of describe your philosophy about engaging learners on social media? I am sure that there are folks listening right now that are like, oh, that doesn’t sound safe or that doesn’t sound like something I would want to do.
But could you just describe sort of what you’re doing, how that looks and maybe give some reassurance to other educators that this is an okay thing to do?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Yeah. So, I was one of those educators initially. I am a card-carrying millennial, and I was very social media averse initially with everything.
So, I get that I didn’t want to share. I grew up in the age where Facebook came out and you had to have your own personal email tied to a school and you know, all of that. But I really kind of lean more heavily into the social media aspect.
I want to say really when COVID hit because we were so sort of isolated at that period of time, even with our teaching, like we couldn’t teach altogether in the lab space, you know, and for anatomy that was tough. And I knew that, you know, people needed to feel still supported from that standpoint. And what allowed us to still feel supported, I feel during that time more heavily was social media.
And I kind of hunkered down because I needed it too. I mean, I felt very isolated as an educator, someone who loves to be with students when I’m now sitting behind a computer screen, teaching and talking in that way. So, you know, I wanted to meet them where they were at.
So, I leaned into really at that time Twitter very heavily and just sort of became this wellness benchmark for students and kind of looked at it from the standpoint of tying it to anatomy, tying it to the curriculum, tying it to just how they’re feeling and how they were doing at that period of time. So, you know, I didn’t want to share a lot and that’s one thing that I still need to be cognizant of too, right? Because sometimes people want to overshare or not.
So, I really kind of look at it as a touch point for them learners here at OSU, but maybe more broadly that there’s always at least one area on social media that you can always go to knowing that it’s driven by a human and someone that’s here to listen. So, I really dug into it during COVID. It really started getting traction and getting people in the community and there was a lot of, you know, traffic during that time and students would ask questions on social media and it kind of went from there and became sort of my own personality that could come through.
And it led to when we got back on campus, more sort of communication and they felt like they knew me, and I knew them and it created a safe environment when we did come back in the lab because we were able to grow a community in the social media space.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned using social media as a wellness tool.
That seems like it goes beyond just like, hey, how are you doing today? And sort of superficial engagement. How do you use your platform for wellness?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Yeah. So, you know, I think it, like I mentioned earlier, it’s hard to be a student. It’s hard to be a learner.
It’s hard to be a human. And I use this as a tool where, you know, no matter what I want, one, I know what’s going on in the curriculum so I can use it to kind of cheerlead them through, see how students are doing leading up to an exam. Hey, med ones, how are you feeling?
Your exams coming up, you know, something along those lines or cheering on for our med threes. Hey, you have your, your boards. Good luck on your board.
So, me knowing sort of what’s going on holistically within the curriculum, I can use it as touch points there. Have a set schedule where I do wellness posts on three days during the week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And, you know, students picked up on that very quickly where they know that they can expect some sort of, you know, motivated meme or motivated quote or something along those lines.
So, they know every Monday morning, every Wednesday morning, every Friday morning, I can go to Quinn’s page and get something out of that. And I, I, I’d like to tell the story where I took a hiatus because I needed personal wellness. And I actually had a student email me on like over the weekend or something like that, asking if I was okay because I didn’t have my regimented wellness posts going on because I don’t do anything sort of preset.
So, I don’t use any program to send these out. I don’t set it. I set it up myself.
So, when I wake up in the morning, the night before I’ve picked out what I want to post. And then my first thing in the morning is I set it up and I post it. So, they were checking in on me over the weekend because I hadn’t posted for two days or something along those lines, whatever it might’ve been.
So having that sort of touch point for students, knowing there’s a set schedule with these posts. And I, again, lean into things that I like. So, I’ll use memes that I like that I use, you know, gifts or whatever they might be of things that I like.
So, I put my own personal touch into it and they can, they see that. So that that’s sort of how I’ve been using it. And I use it, you know, to applaud for the wins.
I use it to applaud things that might not be, you know, good that’s happening, but letting students know that it’s okay. You know, so it sort of runs the gamut of you got an A on the test or maybe, hey, I just got out of bed today and I took a walk, right? Like you have to celebrate how big or how little a win is.
And that’s a moving scale really from there.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Do you just put the post out there on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning and that’s that, or do you continue to engage with students? Like if they comment on one of your posts, do you kind of keep up with that?
Or is it like a one and done for the day?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
No, no, I keep up with it. So, you know, if a student engages with it, you know, leaving a comment, adding their own little flair into it, I do comment back. So, I do keep tabs on it.
You know, I, I think that’s important. So, they know again that I’m present. I’m listening.
I have; I was not good in the beginning. I was one of those, just like you, when you’re a junior faculty, you’re constantly checking your email. You’re constantly checking.
I would check it a little, maybe probably too much sometimes, but now I’ve gotten into a better rigor so that it’s not a constant check, but I do make sure when I do get these notifications, Hey, don’t forget to go back in and comment so that they, they, whoever it might be knows that I still hear them. I see them. It could just be, and I usually, it’s not just a like a, hey, I like your comment.
I’ll add something to it. And it’s usually again, some sort of gift that I want to do, whether or not it’s like the little like snaps or if it’s something along those lines. So again, I think it’s important.
I show up and do sort of let them know like I’m reading it.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. And obviously it’s making a big difference in a lot of their lives.
I mean, for them to be able to reach out to you when you’re not there for a couple of days, which then makes it more difficult for you to take a break when you need to, but maybe you just need to say, hey, I’m taking a break.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
I’ve implemented that in there.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
So, I put like, sort of, hey, I’m going away for, you know, yeah, whatever it might be, because yeah, it was a wellness check.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Really? Now you, you use X or, you know, what was formerly Twitter. Why did you choose that platform?
And is that the only platform that you’re on? You know, there’s a lot of folks on Instagram these days that seems to be, you know, a really big one. There’s Facebook, there’s blue sky.
Oh, Reddit is another one. Tick tock. Have you just stuck with X?
And so that there’s just one place where people know that they can find you or if you expand it out.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Yeah, that’s, that’s good. So, I leaned into X. It’s still hard for me to say that even though it’s been a few years, right?
I really leaned into that because I initially had a personal account. Well, I mean, it’s still a personal account that I run on there and it was more short form kind of post that you could do. And it had a pretty big following initially in the beginning.
So, I thought, let’s do this. And I knew a lot of our students were using Twitter at that time. So, I kind of just thought I’m putting all my eggs into this basket.
Yeah. I had a Facebook, but that was my personal. And I was not about to open that up to everybody.
Right. I also have an Instagram, and I’ve kept it somewhat private, but I do, I’m leaning a little bit more into it now for, you know, just another general view for students. Again, with some bumpers and guardrails on it.
And then I also have done probably, maybe it’s been a year or so. I don’t know when blue sky first started, I, I jumped into there and have been posting in there too. Again, there’s not as much traffic in there, but you still have med Twitter and med sky.
You have, you know, I have anatomy groups on there that I collaborate and connect with. So those are the sort of bubbles. I really do use X predominantly.
I will say that’s my, my main form. I’ve done some with like the college of medicine, social media accounts and stuff like that with their Twitter or Tik TOK and all that. That’s one that I just personally haven’t gotten into mainly because that seems like a lot of work for me.
And I don’t like editing videos of myself. So really that’s sort of where I lean heavily in.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. That, that makes sense.
And you know, when you have something that’s working and people know where to find you, and I think you really addressed one of the biggest challenges I think that’s out there for faculty members and that is time. And so, you know, you start adding more and more social media platforms and there is a time factor. There are services out there that will cross, you know, like if you put it on X, it will also put it on, you know, other platforms sort of automatically.
But if folks know where to find you and your main audience is Ohio state medical students, then that seems like it works. But it’s going to be different, I think, depending on, you know, your personality, how much time you want to put into it, where your particular learners are located and, and all of those things. Speaking of time, how much time would you say that this takes?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Honestly, the biggest amount of time that it takes is me trying to find the right time to whatever motivated quote or whatever meme I want to like, whatever I want to post the next morning that takes me the longest time because I, I don’t want to reuse the same thing all the time. so, I, I dig through a lot of different, you know, whether or not it’s going through some, you know, other posts or things like that. I think that takes the longest amount of time.
Making the post is nothing at that point. And then I just sort of let it run. You know, if I’m taking too much time, I live very close to my sister and she knows that this is something that I do and she, you know, supports that.
And she’ll tell me you’re doing too much right now. So, she is my barometer. If I’m taking too much time on this and she’s also, you know, helps with some of the posts from there.
Cause she’s a very, she’s not even anything with like medicine, none of that. So, she gives me a different viewpoint and vantage point with that. So, I think it’s really important to know that it, it shouldn’t be the full-time suck for you.
You shouldn’t be spending all of this energy. It’s that whole like work-life balance kind of thing. I’d have to also add in work-life social media balance from that standpoint.
So, it’s, I don’t put a huge amount throughout the week. It’s always that night before really is my biggest time.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. And there’s, you know, the internet is saturated with memes related to politics.
And so, I’m sure the wellness stuff is a little, it’s like the evidence-based stuff is harder to find for patients and families than the misinformation and myths and all that. And I imagine finding wellness material to post after a while can get difficult.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
It does, you know, and you, you run the gamut because you don’t want to put too much out there and you don’t want to come off disingenuous, right? So I think that’s why I take so much time to find certain things, because dependent on what’s happening, right, whether or not it’s in the curriculum or what’s happening maybe within, let’s say this bubble or, or more nationally in that bubble, I think knowing the environment, what is, what things are feeling at that period of time, and then looking for some sort of motivative piece or just like a, Hey, I’m thinking of you kind of post that tailoring to the environment is what I really try to do. And that’s where my time is happening.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. For those who may be thinking about this and haven’t actually put it into practice yet, would you recommend, I mean, you know, looking back, this has become a way for you to engage with your students and to support them and to promote wellness and all those things.
Is this something that has been worth your time? And would you suggest that other faculty members in the health sciences incorporate a similar presence?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Yeah. You know, I will say this for me, 110% is worth my time. And that was really evident in a lot of different avenues.
And I think one of those that really let me know that this was worth my time, you know, I, he’s now a resident out in Stanford, but I met a student. He was an undergrad out in Oregon, and we met on social media, and we connected and we, we had, you know, a lot of back and forth. He ended up interviewing here at calm.
He, he went to med school here and he let me know he came to med school because of the social media presence that was created that I had at this space. And I’m still very good friends now with that. Now that he’s a resident out there, I stay in touch with him.
So, knowing that that made a broad impact was, was super important to me and let me know that it, it goes beyond OSU too, you know, whether or not it’s within Ohio, you know, or, or even further out. So that let me know that it was worth it. And to continue this and to have students, you know, posting about anatomy, like, you know, who wants to do that?
But you know what I mean? I do, but you know, I might be an N of one, but for other faculty, I think it, it, it’s not for everybody. I’ll put it that way.
So, I think why not try out a little bit with it? And you don’t have to go and give every people think in social media, you have to share everything, or you only share, you know, the good things you could just dabble in it a little bit. And maybe it’s as simple as just saying, Hey, I’m X here’s where I’m at, right?
Kind of situation. Or maybe it’s just, I’m going to say lurking on social media, but I don’t mean that in a negative way, but just kind of seeing what the tenor is in that space and try it for a little bit. And if it’s not something that if it feels like it is a job to do that and it’s not making you happy with it, then I say, stop, it’s not necessary.
There are other ways that you can bridge that gap and meet your students. You know, I think that’s really important is just doing what is going to make your soul feel good is more important than trying to make it fit.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. If it doesn’t, you know, you, you do have to behave and there really does need to be those, those guardrails and bumpers, as you, as you mentioned, what are some of those for you and how do you keep yourself out of trouble? Cause you know, it’s easy to say what is, you know, the first thing that comes to your mind and you get ready to hit, you know, enter to, to submit it.
And it’s like, maybe I shouldn’t say that. I’m sure that’s happened, right? I mean, that should happen.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
That, that’s one thing that is tough, right? Is I, I, I have a lot to say and, I can’t say everything nor should I say everything that’s inappropriate that I need to be Melissa also outside of here and Melissa outside of the social media space can freely do that. Right.
I do well, one, my, I make sure everything that I like my bio and all that just says, this isn’t a personal, this is a personal account. These are all my opinions. They’re not the opinions of the institution that I am employed by.
So that’s one of the things that I make sure that I have on there is, you know, these are my opinions and my opinions only. You know, if I had an account that was not a personal one and what, then there’s a lot more guardrails that you have on there. Right.
But I do make sure, you know, I try to toe the line with a lot that’s going on around there around the world. But I think it’s important also to support all walks of life. So, I don’t shy away from certain things that are happening because our students are going through a lot of the things that we’re going through with dealing with things.
So, I do work on what I’m going to post and I, I put that past a couple people before I post certain things and that runs the gamut from some of my faculty friends here, some of my faculty friends outside of OSU. And I mentioned my sister, Brittany will let me know if it is an appropriate or not appropriate to put up, you know? So, I think that’s one thing.
And I, the other thing that I am very cognizant of is because my environment is for all students, I don’t want to isolate any of them. So, I need to make sure that I’m not, let’s say coming off and playing favorites on social media for one versus another. So, I think that’s also important because everybody is important, not just one.
So that’s all a roundabout way to say I do keep guardrails on, but I use a team of support people to help me with that. But also knowing when it is time for me to step up and say certain things to let students know that I am here to support all of them.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. Have you felt supported by the university and the hospital system in doing this or has this raised eyebrows amongst those in charge?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
I have been 100% supported and I was not expect, I don’t want to say not expecting, but I am, I felt like I was a tiny little number as, and I hate saying as an anatomist, but in this large conglomerate that is OSU and then the medical center itself, I was sort of picked out by social media posts to do a lot more for the college too. So, I’ve had a very distinct opportunity to do a lot of things with the social media and with their marketing team as well. And you know, I’ve done a lot of videos about what it means to be in the college of medicine, but also anatomy.
They’ve, they’ve really highlighted anatomy too, which has been really important. So, I felt supported from that line, and it’s given me a bigger platform because I’ll go and I’ll post and our OSU college of medicine, social media will always repost things or our alumni will repost the medical center. I have a lot of the different, you know, clinical departments that will repost things or come on and say certain things on my social media.
So, it’s given me a platform outside of, you know, the foundational science bubble that I live in, at least what my background is, right? I work in clinical medicine with, you know, the med students and in some of these other programs here. So, it’s sort of given me a different space in, you know, I all have different, you know, clinicians that I never thought I would ever interface with, you know, reaching out and connecting with me.
And that’s been really, really huge because I, you know, when I was growing up as a PhD, my goal was always to, I want to say bridge the gap, but like, yeah, bridge the gap between foundational science and clinical medicine. And I, this has allowed me to do that, I think in a great way. And it’s allowed even our students to become huge proponents of the foundational sciences and not just, you know, saying, no, I don’t want to even interface with them.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah, for sure. Have you found that you’ve gained followers from other medical schools or is it mostly Ohio state students?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
No, I have followers from a lot of different medical schools along all of the United States. So, you know, I, I, within Ohio, we have a lot of followers, obviously because it just hits pretty broadly. I do a lot of back and forth with the social media space for NeoMed, you know what I mean?
Like cross back and forth and talk and we each interact with each other’s posts and support their students and my students. So that’s been a great interface that I can think of. I have students that have connected with me from down in Florida.
The student basically we connected a few years ago. He wanted to go into anesthesiology, and I was supporting through there and he’s getting ready to go in the match and we’ve been kind of talking back and forth. I mentioned former student Brad Loomis who was out in Oregon connected here and now he’s up at Stanford.
So, there’s a lot of back and forth there. And outside of the medical space I’ve been able to really connect with a lot of different, I mean, anatomy programs are a small niche, but we’ve been able to expand sort of the global kind of idea of anatomy based of this too. And it’s allowed people to reach out to say, we want to build sort of a similar way at our medical school with anatomy and our medical students.
How can we bridge that gap?
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean really in that sense you are cultivating a national reputation as well, which is an important piece of promotion and your academic career.
Can you, can you speak to that a little bit?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Yeah. So, like you mentioned for promotion and everything, you want to show that you have a national or even broadly an international reputation. So, you know, I, I really have leaned on that and I’ve added, it’s in my dossier.
I have a full line about my social media presence and you know, how many followers I have and sort of it runs the gamut and you know, people look at that and what’s also fallen out of that, maybe not necessarily looking just at the social media, you know, handles or whatever I have, people have reached out to do media. So, I add those media lines. So, whether or not it’s interviews based on connecting with my social media.
So, I’ve used that, this, this, this, let’s say this, this meaning my social media to create a way to market myself, but market, right. My, my area of growth and expertise. So, you know, I’ve done talks because of my social media that have gone on my dossier.
I’ve been able to go through, you know, promotion and have that on there and it’s been able to grow. It’s helped my presence, some of our professional organizations too. So, I think that’s also important that I highlight, not just what’s happening here, but I have strong presence in some of our organizations for anatomy.
So, I think that’s also important and you lean on that to show that growth because you know, yes, your national and international comes from presentations based on your research and things like that. Right. But we’re moving into this sphere where it also is honestly, social media, cause that’s how the world connects.
So, I’ve had people that I don’t know ask me to do things because of that.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah. And really, you know, when you’re doing research and you publish something and it’s peer reviewed, which gives you that rigor that this is an academic thing, but you really do almost need to push that out on social media, on your own social media channels to really disseminate what you’ve done because you’re going to reach way more people than who read a journal.
And so that in that sense, academic medicine has been changing like it or not. And social media is certainly not going anywhere. Just like AI is not going anywhere.
Things have to have to evolve and change and the academic institutions have to keep up with that or they’re going to get left behind. So, for faculty who, you know, maybe thinking, okay, maybe this is for me. I mean, there are those who are like, yeah, no.
And I get that. You probably don’t, we don’t necessarily want you on social media if you, you know, because you know, it does take a certain personality and there does have to be some internal patience and filtering and all of those things. And not, not everyone is cool with that for those who maybe think, you know, maybe this is something I’m interested in, but I’m still hesitant.
Like where, where should they start? You mentioned lurking, which I, I mean, I think that’s very important. And just kind of hang out and see what’s happening and what the tone is and all that.
But beyond that, what are some good next steps for them?
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
That’s a good question. I think one of those is reaching out to people that you might know are involved, whether or not that’s your college’s social media team. I think some of the departments have social media liaisons or things like that.
I think that’s one of the areas that you could reach out and just kind of ask them about everything. There are some articles you could just dig into. If you’re really into, you know, looking at research articles and stuff like that, there’s a lot out there that you can kind of dig into and look at that.
But I think the resource you want to do is talk to your students. Where, what are they, how are they processing this? How are they looking at it?
Right. Maybe they’re not using X as much anymore. And really you got to lean into TikTok or something like that.
I think that’s something important in asking them, excuse me, can you show me some of the people that are out on social media? Like what are you watching? What are you seeing from there?
I think that’s important to see what is out there and you can ask one of them. I think that’s important too.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, this has been a really great conversation and I’m sure it’s been, I want to say maybe given permission for some of our listeners to take that next step.
And I’m sure there are other listeners that are like, yeah, not for me. And that’s, and both are fine because we want to reach students in all sorts of places and support them, you know, wherever they are. And this is certainly one area where folks can support students that is a little, you know, non-traditional, but it can be very powerful and very important both for the students, but also for you as a faculty member in terms of networking and your connections that you’ve made and the opportunities that have opened up for you and that national reputation piece.
So definitely something worthwhile, but you know, there’s risks and benefits with everything. And I think everybody has to decide, is this something for me or not? I will disclose that Melissa and I are co-faculty for an elective experience for fourth year medical students on using digital communication, social media, creating content, you know, just really getting education and advocacy out there for the general public.
And so hopefully we are making a difference in folks who are the future faculty members, just to really hopefully help them feel more comfortable engaging in this space and providing information in whatever way is going to enhance their career. So anyway, you’ve been a great faculty member with me and it’s very appreciated.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
It’s honestly so much fun to have that. And I’m glad you brought that class up because you know, that’s another space for them to feel safe and I feel safe to throw things back at them too. So, I think that right there, it’s just been fun.
And I’ve learned a lot too in that class from honestly working with you and our other colleagues in there, Farah and Avi. So yeah.
[Dr Mike Patrick]
Yeah. Fantastic. Really.
Well, we appreciate your time in talking with us. We are going to have a link in the show notes to the Center for Faculty Advancement, Mentoring and Engagement. So, folks can find more faculty development content from them.
I do want to mention the last couple of episodes I’ve really been pushing these teaching modules that I have said are in the resources tab up at the top of the page over at Pamecast.org. And as it turns out, those are all broken. Scarlet Canvas is transitioning to a new server or something and that’s not going to be available until June.
So, any of you who were trying to find out, you know, trying to find it and following the directions that I was giving, yeah, they’re not there, but they will be again soon. They really are a terrific collection of teaching modules and when they’re back online, I’ll let you know and I’ll have links to them and all of that. So, if you did listen to a previous episode and you can’t find what I was talking about, it’s not you, it’s me.
Yes, that’s right. That’s exactly right. So once again, Dr. Melissa Quinn, Associate Professor of Biomedical Education and Anatomy at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. Thank you so much for stopping by and chatting with us today.
[Dr Melissa Quinn]
Thank you, Mike. And thank you to everybody. Again, feel free to reach out to me if you have questions, if you want to lurk on my social media, by all means, you can.
I’m happy to chat with any and all of you.
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[Dr Mike Patrick]
We are back with just enough time to say thanks once again to all of you for taking time out of your day and making FAMEcast a part of it. We really do appreciate your support. Also, thanks again to our guests this week, Dr. Melissa Quinn, Associate Professor of Biomedical Education and Anatomy at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. Don’t forget, you can find FAMEcast wherever podcasts are found. There may be an easier way to find them. We are in the Apple Podcast app, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Audible, and most other podcast apps for iOS and Android.
Our landing site is FameCast.org. You’ll find our entire archive of past programs there. Show notes for each of the episodes, our terms of use agreement, and that handy contact page if you would like to suggest a future topic for the program.
Reviews are also helpful wherever you get your podcasts. We always appreciate when you share your thoughts about the show and also don’t forget about the FD-ED credit. If your institution or department requires faculty development education credit, that credit comes from the Center for Faculty Development at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
It’s the episodes that deal with teaching and learners. And once you find all those episodes, and we’ll have links to all of them in the show notes for this particular episode over at FameCast.org. Once you listen, it’s really easy to claim credit.
Just listen to the podcast. And for this one, you’ve already done that. Look for the link in the show notes again at FameCast.org.
Follow that link to Cloud CME, register or sign in to your free account at Cloud CME. Take a brief survey and it’s located in the materials tab and then you score the credit and you can even download a transcript of your credits to share with your institution or department. Thanks again for stopping by.
And until next time, this is Dr. Mike saying, stay focused, stay balanced and keep reaching for those stars. So long, everybody.
[MUSIC]
