How are our medical students using the computer and internet? A study from a medical college of north India

Abstract

Background:In today's world, use of Internet has become indispensable. Medical students have much to gain from the Internet technology that has revolutionized the medical field. There is a very rapid change in the way communication technology is being handled and our medical students should also be ready to embrace it. Very few studies have been done on this topic in India. The aim was to find out the knowledge, practice, and barriers of Internet use among the medical undergraduates of Subharti Medical College, Meerut.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among the MBBS students belonging to the first, second, third, and fourth years of their course during August to October 2009. A pretested questionnaire was used collecting information on their Internet usage patterns, knowledge about information technology, and barriers to using it. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and appropriate statistical tests were applied for analysis.Results:The proportion of respondents having a laptop were more in cohort of students belonging to the admission year 2009 (65.8%) followed by 2008 (54.7%), 2007 (53.0%), and 2006 (38.0%), i.e., a gradual increase in newer cohorts. About half (57.4%) of the students had some sort of formal training in computer and Internet use. Knowledge about Internet was more among the junior cohorts compared to the senior cohorts (P<0.0001). Only about one-fifths of the respondents used Internet for searching literature for projects from medical journals on the Internet. Majority of the respondents accessed Internet for less than 3 hours per week. About one-tenth (8.0%) of the students felt that Internet is totally useless in medical field. The major barrier (54.4% of the respondents) to using Internet was lack of time.Conclusions:Further research should focus on designing and implementing computer and Internet training for medical students.

A survey on internet usage and online learning behaviour among medical undergraduates

“…This is in contrast with another Indian study by Maroof et al 11 in which it was found that 53.7% of the medical students accessed the internet using a personal computer. In the same study, it was also found that the majority (58.5%) were using it for communication and entertainment, and only about a third were using it to access medical information (27.7% for medical literature and 32.4% for accessing content related to medical procedures, videos and pictures).…”

“…In the study of Maroof et al 11 it was also found that the proportion of year III medical students using the internet was higher than first year medical students, and male students were using it for longer than female students. However, in our study, although more male students accessed the internet for longer than female students, the proportion of IX semester students accessing the internet for a longer time was smaller than VIII semester students.…”

Computer and Internet Utilization among the Medical Students in Qassim University, Saudi Arabia

“…Ranasinghe et al, [9] stated that the students used computers predominately for; word processing (95.6%), entertainment (95.0%), web browsing (80.1%) and preparing presentations (76.8%). In a study which was conducted in Meerut, India, Maroof KA and co-workers [10] showed that the main use of the Internet was for communication (58.5%) and entertainment (46.3%) and that only about one-fifths of the respondents used the Internet for searching literature for projects from the medical journals which are there on the Internet. Jadoon et al, [11] stated that 61.0% used the internet for both academic and Personal activities, while 17% used it for academic activities [Table /Fig-3].…”

Challenges of Information and Communication Technology Utilization Among Undergraduate Community Health Nursing Students in Tanta University, Egypt

“…Even developing countries are taking efforts to acknowledge the technological expansions. Health professional students now have a strong base to utilize information technology for their professional development [6].…”