Download our White Paper covering Social Media for Physician Recruitment for insight into how physicians use social media and how hospital and healthcare leaders and recruiters can use these channels to reach them in a meaningful way.
Social Media for Recruitment
By Tony Stajduhar, President, Jackson Physician Search
The physician shortage continues to rank among the top three concerns for hospital CEOs, making the need to cost-effectively recruit the right candidates more acute than ever. As the physician workforce evolves, how can your organization recruit faster, more efficiently and at less cost? Embracing social/digital media as a core strategy has become central to recruitment success.
Social Media is at the Intersection of Two Key Physician Behaviors
Physicians are networkers. Through their years of training and beyond, physicians build large personal and professional networks they trust. Physicians rely on these networks for many professional reasons including building practice networks, keeping up with industry trends and news, and opening doors to future practice opportunities.
Physicians are digital omnivores. Their hunger for connectivity keeps them constantly connected through multiple devices, including laptops, tablets, smartphones, and even wearables. Technology keeps physicians, like the rest of us, connected 24/7, both personally and professionally.
Peer-to-peer communication is changing with the rise of physician engagement on social networking platforms. A survey published in the last couple of years reported that 65% of physicians use social media for professional purposes, a number that has surely grown as dedicated physician resources and communities have developed to meet physicians where they are: online.
For example, NEJM Resident 360 connects them to experts for clinical and career insights as well as a supportive community of fellow residents. Another example is SERMO, a self-described “virtual doctor’s lounge.” It was created for verified and credentialed physicians to talk openly with other physicians about the business and practice of medicine.
Doximity is another example of how social media interaction among physicians is growing. As a HIPAA-compliant smartphone application with over 70% of US doctors as verified members, their technology enables doctors and other healthcare professionals to connect and securely collaborate on patient treatment, grow their practices and discover new career opportunities.
