The impact of IT infrastructures on Iranian nurses' and students' health information-seeking strategies
Program: electronic library and information systems
ISSN: 0033-0337
Article publication date: 23 September 2013
Abstract
Purpose
Health departments of Iran have attempted to encourage nursing staff to incorporate research findings into practice since 2005. Consequently, significant changes have occurred in nursing area including holding computer skills courses, digital library workshops, establishing web sites in hospitals, and developing information technology (IT) training in nursing students' curriculum to increase accessibility to best practice information and opportunity for nurses and students to use research-based information in their clinical decision. So a question has raised, what information resources are used by nursing staff and students in hospitals? The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 412 nurses and students working in hospitals connected to web and digital libraries participated. They are evaluated with a questionnaire.
Findings
The results indicated that the students and the nurses preferred experiential knowledge to research-based information in their clinical decisions and they had little tendency to high-level evidence. Results showed that lack of skill in using library was the most important deterrent in using research-based information.
Originality/value
It could be concluded that provision of the infrastructures for using research-based information in clinical decisions was not sufficient. In addition to infrastructures, the paper must invest on organizational, system-wide approaches such as organizational culture, information literacy culture, acceptance of innovation, role of clinical librarians and advanced nursing informatics, and social marketing in evidence-based practice to facilitate the use of higher-level evidence in practice.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the nursing staffs' and students' contributions and support of the directors in the affiliated hospitals of Semnan University of Medical Sciences.
Citation
Kahouei, M., Babamohamadi, H., Sadat Ghazavi shariat panahi, S. and Mahdi Zadeh, J. (2013), "The impact of IT infrastructures on Iranian nurses' and students' health information-seeking strategies", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 47 No. 4, pp. 369-383. https://doi.org/10.1108/PROG-05-2012-0021
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited