Exploring the role of YouTube in supplementing medical education and patient care

Abstract

Significant paradigm shifts and reforms have been reported in the field of medical education delivery worldwide depending on the changing health-care needs of the community and the demands of medical students. The purpose of the current review is to explore the role of YouTube in facilitating the delivery of medical education and improving clinical practice on the global platform. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out on the PubMed and Google Scholar search engines and a total of 49 articles were selected based on their suitability with the current review objectives and analyzed. Keywords used in the search include YouTube, social media, and medical education in the title alone only. Being a freely available platform that can be accessed by anyone, YouTube has emerged as a platform that can be looked upon as an option to combine different kinds of educational resources for the benefit of medical students. In addition, the introduction of YouTube as a learning resource material has played a significant role in improving confidence levels, better acquisition of knowledge, and improved levels of satisfaction among students. To conclude, social networking sites like YouTube have emerged as one of the popular tools of information and educational material for the benefit of medical students and health-care professionals. Realizing the potential of the platform, it is high time that specific steps are taken to integrate YouTube into the medical curriculum and help students and health-care professionals to acquire knowledge and clinical skills.