• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, November 14, 2013

Healthcare workers remain leery of using social media in their day-to-day work due to liability concerns, but that doesn’t stop them from using it to look for jobs, according to a new survey from AMN Healthcare, which specializes in healthcare staffing services.

The AMN survey of 1,902 healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, and dentists, found that 42% of healthcare professionals have used social media as part of a job search; that’s double the figure in a previous AMN survey conducted in 2010. Among other things, healthcare professionals use social media to look for job postings, research potential employers, and determine whether they know anyone who can help with their job search.

Beyond the realm of social media, 20% of healthcare professionals said they receive mobile text alerts about job possibilities, from recruiters and other sources -- again, double the proportion in 2010.

As might be expected, doctors (who carry the heaviest liability burden) are least likely to use social media to find a new job; pharmacists were the most likely. However doctors and nurses are cognizant of social media’s potential influence on their professional reputation, with one-third of clinicians saying they refrain from posting negative content, and half deliberately crafting their social profiles to highlight their professional skills.

The most popular social media sites for career purposes for health care professionals overall were LinkedIn (58%), Facebook 24%) and Google+ (10%). However among clinicians and physicians the top choice was MedScape (39%), followed by AllNurses.com (10%) and Nurse.com (8%).