The impact of individual factors on healthcare staff's computer use in psychiatric hospitals.
OBJECTIVE
The study examines whether individual factors of healthcare staff are associated with computer use in psychiatric hospitals. In addition, factors inhibiting staff's optimal use of computers were explored.


BACKGROUND
Computer applications have developed the content of clinical practice and changed patterns of professional working. Healthcare staff need new capacities to work in clinical practice, including the basic computers skills. Computer use amongst healthcare staff has widely been studied in general, but cogent information is still lacking in psychiatric care.


METHODS
Staff's computer use was assessed using a structured questionnaire (The Staggers Nursing Computer Experience Questionnaire). The study population was healthcare staff working in two psychiatric hospitals in Finland (n = 470, response rate = 59%). The data were analysed with descriptive statistics and manova with main effects and two-way interaction effects of six individual factors.


RESULTS
Nurses who had more experience of computer use or of the implementation processes of computer systems were more motivated to use computers than those who had less experience of these issues. Males and administrative personnel who were younger had also participated more often than women in implementation processes of computer systems. The most significant factor inhibiting the use of computers was lack of interest in them.


CONCLUSIONS
In psychiatric hospitals, more direct attention should focus on staff's capacities to use computers and to increase their understanding of the benefits in clinical care, especially for women and ageing staff working in psychiatric hospitals.


CONCLUSIONS
To avoid exclusion amongst healthcare personnel in information society and to ensure that they have capacities to guide patients on how to use computers or to evaluate the quality of health information on the web, staff's capacities and motivation to use computers in mental health and psychiatric nursing should be ensured.
Koivunen
Marita
M
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. mhkoivu@utu.fi
Välimäki
Maritta
M
Koskinen
Anita
A
Staggers
Nancy
N
Katajisto
Jouko
J