A Preliminary Study on Uncovering Medical Students' Unprofessional Behaviors from YouTube Videos

Creation of guidelines and education on digital professionalism have been sluggish despite the ever-increasing use of social media by digitally native medical students, who are at risk of blurring the line between their professional and personal lives online. A qualitative thematic analysis was applied on 79 videos extracted from 70,154 YouTube videos uploaded by Korean medical students between March and April 2020. We found 20% contained at least one concerning behavior themed under 'failure to engage,' 'disrespectful behaviors,' or 'poor selfawareness.' Professional lapses identified were classified into seriousness levels. Mostly were controversial' or 'concerning' but some 'highly concerning' contents were also found. This is the first study on digital professionalism behavior on medical students' YouTube videos. The potential negative impact on the medical profession of the easily accessible public online videos cannot be ignored and thus we suggest the need for them to be taken more seriously.

Automated summary

Despite the increasing use of social media by medical students, there has been slow progress in creating guidelines and education on digital professionalism, leading to potential blurred lines between professional and personal lives. A study found concerning behaviors in medical students' YouTube videos, ranging from disrespectful behaviors to poor self-awareness, suggesting the need to address these issues with more seriousness.