Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Nov 15;24(1):1318.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-06330-0.

YouTube as a source of education on tunneled catheter insertion: content and quality analysis

Merve Ergenç  1 , Ruslan Abdullayev  2   3
Affiliations

YouTube as a source of education on tunneled catheter insertion: content and quality analysis

Merve Ergenç et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Tunneled catheters can be inserted for many reasons, and in most centers, and in most centers it is not clear who should insert these catheters. Some anesthesiologists may not have seen first-hand the insertion of a tunneled catheter during their residency, depending on the policies of the institution. YouTube is one of the most commonly used online platforms for accessing medical information. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of YouTube videos, for tunneled central venous catheter (Hickman and tunneled hemodialysis catheters) insertion for education.

Methods: The keywords "Tunneled catheter insertion" and "Tunneled central venous catheter insertion" were searched for on YouTube. The first 100 videos ranked by the YouTube algorithm were analysed. Animation and theoretical content videos, as well as videos that included only a part of the catheter insertion, were excluded. The sources of the videos were categorized as medical doctors or professional organizations. medical device advertisement and hospital. Two authors evaluated all videos via the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria, modified DISCERN scores and the Global Quality Scale (GQS).

Results: Twenty-three videos were analysed in the study. The video quality scores were similar across the video sources. The number of views and the number of likes were significantly positively correlated. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between the JAMA, Modified DISCERN, and GQS scores. Notably, none of the analysed videos achieved full points in all three scoring systems.

Conclusions: Relying on a single criterion, such as the video source or number of likes, is not sufficient to determine a video's quality. Therefore, what is learned from videos needs to be double-checked. These platforms should be used as an additional tool, not as the primary source of education.

Keywords: Central venous catheters; Continuing medical education; Online education; Vascular access devices; Video sharing networks; YouTube.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate There were no human or animal participants in this study. Ethical committee approval or clinical trial registration was not required for this study because no patient data were utilized, and all videos were available for public use on the social media website www.youtube.com. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of video selection
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Farag M, Bolton D, Lawrentschuk N. Use of YouTube as a Resource for Surgical Education-Clarity or Confusion. Eur Urol Focus. 2020;6(3):445–9. - PubMed
    1. Ahmed S, Zimba O, Gasparyan AY. Moving towards online rheumatology education in the era of COVID-19. Clin Rheumatol. 2020;39(11):3215–22. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Osman W, Mohamed F, Elhassan M, Shoufan A. Is YouTube a reliable source of health-related information? A systematic review. BMC Med Educ. 2022;22(1):382. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Krakowiak M, Rak M, Krakowiak P, Racisz K, Słoniewski P, et al. YouTube as a source of information on carbon monoxide poisoning: a content-quality analysis. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2022;35(3):285–95. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barlas T, Ecem Avci D, Cinici B, Ozkilicaslan H, Muhittin Yalcin M, et al. The quality and reliability analysis of YouTube videos about insulin resistance. Int J Med Inform. 2023;170: 104960. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources