Use of the Internet by Sudanese doctors and medical students.
Patterns of use of the Internet were investigated by a questionnaire survey of 102 hospital doctors and 123 medical students in Khartoum, Sudan, in January 2005. More doctors (84.3%) had used the Internet than had students (78.9%). Half of consultants (55.0%) used the Internet daily, compared with only 18.2% of junior doctors. Many consultants and junior doctors rated their abilities as poor (60.0% and53.1%). One-third of students (33.3%) used the Internet only for personal and not for academic purposes. Barriers to greater use of the Internet by doctors included: time constraints (80.2%), poor skills (54.6%), no access to full texts of journal articles (53.4%), difficulty in verifying the quality of information (47.6%) and high costs (41.8%). Students faced similar barriers but also listed poor knowledge of the English language.
Department of Medicine, University of Bahr Elghazal, Khartoum, Sudan. awad.sd@gmail.com
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Ahmed
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Yousif
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Abdalla
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D003197:Computer Literacy; D034742:Electronic Mail / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013397:Sudan; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors