Contexts of utilization of ICT by medical practitioners in private hospitals in Osun State Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to address the question of how the unified theory of acceptance and utilization of technology (UTAUT) model explains the use of ICT by medical practitioners in private hospitals in Osun State, Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a systematic random sample of 211 medical practitioners in 135 hospitals using a questionnaire.

Findings

The respondents were more comfortable with mobile phones than they were with any other technologies. The significance of the relationship between age of respondents and use of ICT reduced with increasing age of respondents higher than 39. Availability of ICTs and the social worlds of the medical practitioners, together with ICT implementation contexts, positively and significantly explained the use of ICT in the hospitals.

Research limitations/implications

An expanded study focusing specifically on how social influence promotes ICT use by medical practitioners in private hospitals in the state will be a necessity.

Practical implications

The medical practitioners seemed to have overcome the challenges of individual and technological factors in using ICT in the hospitals, but not so for implementation context, which explained ICT use, supporting the need for improved community‐hospital relationship.

Originality/value

Information technology use models have been used extensively in various studies in Nigeria, but none have deployed the recent version of the technology acceptance model in the hospital sector.

Citation

Nwagwu, W. and Akeem, A. (2013), "Contexts of utilization of ICT by medical practitioners in private hospitals in Osun State Nigeria", World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 229-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-01-2013-0004