Hospital nurses' use of knowledge-based information resources.
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.
Tannery
Nancy Hrinya
NH
Health Sciences Library System, University of Pittsburgh, 3550 Terrace Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. tannery@pitt.edu
Wessel
Charles B
CB
Epstein
Barbara A
BA
Gadd
Cynthia S
CS
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