Public perceptions about nurses communicated via Twitter in Turkey

Social media platforms such as Twitter allow people to openly express their views about many topics, including the nursing profession. COVID-19 is currently a frequently searched and discussed topics on Twitter. This study was performed to identify the image of nursing in the social media before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey, and to review of public perceptions about nurses' communication on twitter in Turkey.

This study was conducted using content analysis with a sample of tweets posted on Twitter before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Codes were created, including expressions of respect, anxiety, violence, gratefulness, anger, positivity, and negativity.

Findings showed that 35.65% of the 373 tweets posted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were positive while 64.35% were negative. During the pandemic 91.94% of the 1006 tweets were positive and 8.06% were negative.

The results of this study suggests that public opinion about nurses, as reflected on Twitter during the COVID 19 pandemic, was positive.