Background The use of social media for learning amongst emergency medicine doctors has been increasing in recent years. However the role of social media as a learning modality in emergency medicine is not fully understood. This study aims to understand why and how emergency medicine doctors use social media for learning. Through this understanding this study aims to promote thought into design of future resources of learning on social media. Methods Emergency Medicine doctors of all grades were recruited from a single tertiary University Hospital in the United Kingdom. These participants were interviewed by semi structured interview following the principles of a Critical Incident Technique. Recordings were professionally transcribed. Transcriptions were then thematically analysed and coded to understand participants perspectives. Ethics was granted by Cardiff University, Wales. Results 20 emergency medicine doctors from Foundation Year 1 through to consultants were interviewed. Twitter (X) was the most popular platform; infographics were the most popular resource and 80% spent less than 3 hours per week on SM for learning. Key themes from the thematic analysis as to why emergency medicine doctors used social media for their learning included wanting to keep up to date ease of access discussion around topics, bench marking current practice, community, and recommendations. Only 10% used social media as part of their continued professional development and 65% stated social media had influenced their clinical practice Conclusions This unique qualitative explorative piece of work explores the use of social media for learning by emergency medicine doctors and how it is changing clinical practice. With the rapid growth and uptake in social media use for educational purposes. It is vital that all educators fully understand how it is being currently used as well as views of learners on this form of learning. This will allow us to further grow and develop this exciting area and maximise the educational impact on its users.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding

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Ethical committee of Cardiff University gave ethical approval for this work

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors