Practices of Locating Health Information in an Electronic Environment: Reflections on Conducted Health Information Skills Training

Health Information Needs and Reliability of Sources Among Nondegree Health Sciences Students: A Prerequisite for Designing eHealth Literacy

“…19 These problems confront nondegree, undergraduate, and postgraduate health sciences students, as a result of the fact that health information literacy skills are not integrated into their curricula, nor are they being taught throughout the entire duration of the developed course program. 4 The majority of students in this study indicated a lack of user training on electronic health information searching skills as being a main challenge in seeking health information for their education in the 21st century. Limitations and Recommendations of the Study.…”

“…14 Following up with possible reasons for this discrepancy, other studies have indicated different factors, such as lack of relevant information, shortage of time for locating other sources, and experienced practitioners in the field being more knowledgeable. 4,14 A pairwise test after the Kruskal-Wallis test significantly indicated that students rely on 7 sources of health information, including electronic books, search engines, hospital specialists, findings of research reports, curricula, library catalogues, and websites, and these are often used more by students enrolled in the certificate program than those in other levels of study. As indicated previously, students in the certificate course have less knowledge compared with those in other levels of study.…”

“…In addition, it was confirmed that EHIL is a requirement common to all health settings, learning environments, and levels of study. 4,16,19,22 After this study, the design of EHIL skills will be an ongoing project to ensure nondegree health sciences students acquire optimal information to support their education and future clinical practices in order to apply evidence-based medicine. In connection to this, an EHIL program will trigger lifelong learning habits for health sciences students in Tanzania…”

“…3 Rapid change in the manner in which health information is created, stored, retrieved, and transmitted has resulted in increasing challenges that health information professionals face to ensure proper and timely access to relevant health information by students. 4 In the recent years, access to health information in an electronic environment has been made possible as a result of the advancement of technology.…”