Culture of information and information exchange in a public hospital: a study based on the information orientation model and social network analysis

Abstract

The structures of hospitals have evolved to make them centre on patients and their pathologies, with care procedures that are both interprofessional and interorganisational. This has given rise to work environments made up of teams obliged to collaborate in their problem-solving, with an essential focus on proper collaborative information behaviour (CIB). The aim was to study this behaviour in a clinical service of a hospital in relation to two aspects: information culture (IC) and the exchange of information. This entailed designing a two-part descriptive study. The first step was to administer a survey based on the information orientation model to know more about the service’s IC. The second phase focussed on the exchange of information from the perspective of an analysis of social networks. The main characteristic of IC was its proactive nature, especially in the use of information to improve one’s own work (mean = 4.58) and to respond to changes and new developments relating to work (mean = 4.18). The factor that least characterised IC was control, particularly in relation to knowledge of the objective of the activity itself (mean = 2.67) and the dispersion of information about hospital processes (mean = 2.64). On social networks, factors contrary to an interprofessional CIB were identified, such as homophily and low reciprocity in terms of relationships. In practice, the results identified a need to reinforce the perception of information as a resource, the proper use of which benefits job performance at both an individual and group level. A need to reinforce flows of internal hospital-related information was likewise evident. From a theoretical and methodological point of view, a useful tool is made available for diagnosing the collaborative information behaviour of an organisation and designing strategies to improve it.

Education and New Developments 2023 – Volume 2

“…Not only will searches on social networking cross-over to internet-based social media concepts that become relevant for marketing strategies and public trust (Sadiku, Omotoso & Musa, 2019;and Paskarina, 2023), it is also presented as social networks or maps (what) only and not the skill of social networking (how). There are some promising applications of social network analysis in health McDonald;Darlow & Perry, 2017;Fortea-Cabo & González-Teruel, 2022;and Mukinda, Van Belle & Schneider, 2022) and social psychology (Butts, 2008). The usefulness of the social network analysis practice tool to comprehensively evaluate partnerships needed to support critical PPC services, will be explained, an intervention that will be more cost effective than just considering the high individual, medical care costs typically involved.…”

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