title: Hospital nurses' use of knowledge-based information resources.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the information-seeking practices of nurses before and after access to a library's electronic collection of information resources. This is a pre/post intervention study of nurses at a rural community hospital. The hospital contracted with an academic health sciences library for access to a collection of online knowledge-based resources. Self-report surveys were used to obtain information about nurses' computer use and how they locate and access information to answer questions related to their patient care activities. In 2001, self-report surveys were sent to the hospital's 573 nurses during implementation of access to online resources with a post-implementation survey sent 1 year later. At the initiation of access to the library's electronic resources, nurses turned to colleagues and print textbooks or journals to satisfy their information needs. After 1 year of access, 20% of the nurses had begun to use the library's electronic resources. The study outcome suggests ready access to knowledge-based electronic information resources can lead to changes in behavior among some nurses.
authors.affiliation: Health Sciences Library System, University of Pittsburgh, 3550 Terrace Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. tannery@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Nancy Hrinya
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Tannery
authors.forename: Charles B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Wessel
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.forename: Cynthia S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Gadd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003197:Computer Literacy; D003200:Computer User Training; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006780:Hospitals, Rural; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D046609:Libraries, Digital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007994:Libraries, Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires