Use of Social Media by Healthcare Professionals

Public Health Education and Promotion. When COVID-19 crisis hit Cebu City sometime in March 2020, I personally felt frustrated that most of the infomercials online educating the public about transmission of the novel coronavirus was in Tagalog. Not everyone could understand Tagalog. This was a hindrance for me since I had yet to learn how to speak Cebuano. So I challenged Atty Rey Cris Panugaling to create a program to educate the hospital employees as well as our patients on what COVID-19 was, how it is transmitted and what the Department of Health and our own hospital was doing about it - to gather public support for frontline healthcare workers.

Since then we've aired more than 100 episodes of our SOTTO LIVE FB program to connect healthcare workers with patients and their families... and I learned to speak conversational Bisaya or Cebuano, the local dialect!

SOTTO LIVE has evolved to different shows on a daily basis with Debunking Myths on Mondays, Mental Health Check on Tuesdays, The Doctor is Here on Wednesdays, SOTTO NATIN 'TO on Thursdays and SOTTO LIVE Reports on Fridays.

Teaching, Learning and Patient Care. Today the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (POGS) Committee on Information, Communications and Technology launched its #virtualPOGS webinar 1.0 as a guide on how to behave online as well as how to access the society's website in preparation for our annual convention.

Moving Forward. I look forward to my own lecture for #virtualPOGS WEBINAR 2.0 of the POGS Committee on Information, Communications and Technology on September 10, 2020 from 10:00 am to 12:00 nn. This will be the FIRST TIME for me to give a lecture to a National POGS audience, and it's on social media! Do support me please!

Health Professional Education. Last week, we were required to attend a workshop on how to use google classroom for our medical students: how to create a class, how to add students, how to make assignments as well as quizzes. Amazing how programs like these make checking student work and grading them easy as a peach! It seems the faculty (and parents of students) have a more difficult time adjusting to online classes compared to students themselves!

 

During last year's #HCSMPH2019 keynote speaker Jojo Fresnedi spoke about social media being the medium of this era. We realize that #HealthXPH has long identified that social media is here to stay and that we aim to make the impact of social media on healthcare a positive one, where healthcare workers, policy makers, students and patients can connect and have online conversations on healthcare.

How has the new normal forced you and those around you to embrace digital technology?

How do you use social media today?

Who do you follow on social media for guidance and why?

Be Blessed

Over the weekend I was feeling sorry for myself because I realized that at 42 years old, my contemporaries have already established their own households and have sent their kids thru highschool, while I remain dependent on my mother without any savings and without any investments to my name.

I tagged along to the mountain barangays for home visit of our scholars and their families.  I was humbled to think that these nuclear families have nothing, not even the land on which they built their homes, the land which they till to plant gladiolas, the chickens and ducks that keep them company... These are not theirs, but they remain happy with what little they have and even share with others.  How dare I complain when I have so much more than they have, and I feel unhappy.  I need to remind myself to be blessed!

When you feel down, count your blessings.  It works for me!

Forgive, not Forget

 

To forgive is divine.  Vengeance is not ours, it is God's.

Everything that happens to you is a learning event.  Life teaches us that way.  We change our behavior based on our experiences.

The Hands that Raised Me

 

Family.  I will always be thankful for my family - the group of people who keep me anchored as I spread my wings to explore beyond my comfort zone.

The problem with this pandemic is that factors that we cannot control cause friction among the people that we love.

There should be a balance between understanding the other person and the circumstances there are in, and defending yourself against misconceptions.

When dark thoughts come in, I always have to remind myself that sometimes it is better to be kind than to be correct.  To be the better person.  This is so difficult to implement, but not impossible.

Again, we need to be humble, self-effacing.  Because we can.

Push ups for Mental Health

 

I started the 25 day push up challenge to promote mental health and suicide awareness.  All I had to do was perform 25 push ups each day, video it and share it quietly with my scholars.  Soon after, they started posting their own videos.  I don't know when I stopped doing the push ups, but mental health promotion and suicide prevention was still topmost on my mind.  With all the things happening these days, it is feels so easy to fall into the trap of giving up.

They may be kids, teenagers struggling thru puberty and concerns growing up... but they learn the language of love and supporting each other and communicating with compassion.

As we face more than the 25 day push challenge, like we face and accept the challenges of life, we need to be thankful for community.  So that no matter how lonely physical isolation may feel, we are grateful for the support of others rooting for us to succeed.