Nurses' use of computer databases to identify evidence for practice--a cross-sectional questionnaire survey in a UK hospital.
The objectives of this study were to determine nurses' use of electronic databases to inform practice. A questionnaire survey of 114 nurses working on five acute wards in a large inner city teaching hospital investigated their general use of computers and the three databases, CINAHL, MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library. Eighty-two qualified nurses responded (response rate 72%). The results show limited confidence and low frequency in using the databases. Thirty-four per cent expressed low confidence using CINAHL. Twenty-seven per cent used CINAHL on a regular basis. Twenty-two per cent never used it. Eighteen per cent were unaware that it was available locally. Knowledge and use of MEDLINE was even lower with only 18% using it regularly. Knowledge of the Cochrane Library was extremely limited, with 75% unaware of its existence. Use of a home computer and higher education were associated with higher frequency of use of CINAHL and MEDLINE. If nurses are to make use of electronic resources to contribute to evidence-based practice, effort needs to be put into ensuring that already qualified nurses have basic computer skills and specific knowledge of available resources. More emphasis should be placed on 'evidence-based' resources, such as the Cochrane library, as sources of information for practice.
Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, King's College London, UK. peter.griffiths@kcl.ac.uk
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D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006302:Health Services Research; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006113:United Kingdom