Impact of health informatics on nurses' computer skills and the role of the library

Abstract

PurposeThe concept of the paper is how the library can be a useful framework for designing nurses' computer skills. The overarching aim of the research is to focus on how the computer skills involved in nurses' increasing access to health informatics can be used to improve nursing practice, consequently leading to better health care delivery. The objectives involved in achieving this aim include: finding out the level of nurses' computer literacy; finding out nurses' quest for electronic information for problem‐based nursing practice; investigating nurses' level of awareness of research‐based nursing practice; and finding out areas of desirability of informatics in nursing practice.Design/methodology/approachThe measuring instrument used was a self‐administered questionnaire to senior nursing cadres in the Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile‐Ife, Nigeria. There were 230 nurses in these categories, of whom 180 were given questionnaires to fill in. The questionnaire was pre‐tested and validated. A total of 167 copies were returned and found to be usable. Simple percentages and a summation weighted index were used to analyse the data.FindingsThe paper provides empirical insight into nurses' computer skills and the library's role. The majority of the respondents did not have knowledge of computers; in the School of Nursing they learned it through various means while practising, while a few could access and retrieve information from the available databases. Some difficulties were expressed, such as workload, lack of skills, location of the library with regard to the hospital, etc. The desirability of the introduction of health informatics to the profession is high.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to a teaching hospital and the results may not be generalisable to non‐teaching hospitals, hence the need for further studies.Practical implicationsThe impact of health informatics on nurses' computer skills and the library's role will save nurses from routine work, enhance their productivity, and will equip them better for the challenges that information technology presents for health professionals.Originality/valueThis paper fulfils and identifies the need to introduce health informatics to nursing practice in order to improve patient care.

Computer and Internet Use among Tertiary Healthcare Providers and Trainees in a Nigerian Public Hospital

“…The findings on further training in computer and the Internet correspond with previous studies such as Adeleke et al [16] where participants wanted more training in electronic data analysis; Gour & Srivasta [41] with demands on provision for computer training and Cullen [24] with training in the identification, use, and application of evidence in practice. Other corroborating reports are Salako & Tiamiyu [50] on how to enhance efficiency in academic pursuance; Yeung [30] on benefits of technology-enabled training; Ajayi [31] on the introduction of health informatics and Chan et al [51] reported that a group of primary care nurses with consensus required training with a view to improving their computer use.…”

Barriers to using electronic evidence based literature in nursing practice: a systematised review

“…One study noted that although satisfied with work access to bibliographic databases, the majority of New Zealand nurses suffer from insufficient time at work and time barrier was a deterrent factor to search for online evidence based material . Similarly, another study in Nigeria pointed out that majority of nurses were computer literate but not having enough time prevents them to search while at work . A comparable finding is supported by the above‐mentioned citations emphasising on the need for time allocation for nurses at work as EBP is a multi‐stage process and every stage including locating the available resources and searching the related literature requires devoting sufficient time.…”

“…Evidence based practice relies on systematised approaches to find pertinent research not on ‘arbitrary Internet searches’ . Excluding time limitation, lack of knowledge on searching skills was the most noted obstacle which 66% ( n = 14) of the reviewed papers identified . For instance, in their study, Majid et al .…”

“…The second most cited barrier in this review was identified as lack of searching skills on bibliographic databases . Nurses are the major clinical staff in health care setting, but evidence suggests that less have addressed their seeking behaviour compared with nursing students .…”

“…Different studies revealed different barriers proposing the problem as a multi‐faceted issue. The most cited barrier that almost 86% of the reviewed studies have addressed included lack of enough time to perform a search …”