Health and Social Care Education

© 2013 S.P. Forrest, The Higher Education Academy Welcome to this edition of Health and Social Care Education. In my last editorial I drew attention to the value of the journal as a vehicle for sharing both interand intra-disciplinary learning and teaching practice. The breadth of contributions to this edition continue to demonstrate the profit to be had from bringing cutting-edge pedagogy and scholarship from across health and social care disciplines together. I want here to highlight a number of dimensions through which engagement of this kind is possible. You might find, for example, it is the salience of the object of concern or interest that stimulates your thinking. Julie Prescott, Sarah Wilson and Gordon Becket’s work on students’ use of and attitudes towards social media makes an important contribution of this kind addressing a topic which I am confident has resonance with educators across health and social care professions. In reporting results of a questionnaire survey involving several hundred students in nursing, pharmacy and social work they enrich our understanding of some of the similarities and differences in attitude and behaviour by age, gender and profession. This work provides some important pointers to the focus educators might adopt in targeting interventions designed to help students manage their online persona in ways that are protective of themselves, the reputations of their professions and most importantly, patients and clients.