title: "I can do it": does confidence and perceived ability in learning new ICT skills predict pre-service health professionals' attitude towards engaging in e-healthcare?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are many factors affecting health professionals' willingness to engage in e-health. One of these factors is whether health professionals perceive themselves to be able to learn new skills, and have the confidence in mastering these new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study examined how health students' confidence and perceived ability for learning new ICT skills affect their attitude towards engaging in e-health.
  
  
  METHODS
  A survey was conducted to explore students' attitude towards using e-health and their perceived self-efficacy and confidence to learn new ICT skills. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between confidence and self-efficacy, and attitude towards engaging in e-health controlling for participants' age, gender, and prior IT learning experience.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The three scales measuring attitude, confidence and self-efficacy showed good internal consistency with respective Cronbach's Alpha scores of 0.835, 0.761 and 0.762. Multiple regression analysis showed a significant relationship between confidence, self-efficacy and prior IT learning experiences with attitude towards e-health after adjusting for the effect of each other (F<inf>3,350</inf>=17.20,p&lt;0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Self-efficacy and confidence in learning new ICT skills together with previous ICT training either at or outside their university studies are significant factors associated with students' attitude towards using e-health. Enhancing students' level of self-efficacy in learning new ICT skills may be the key to the success of implementation of e-health initiatives.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW 1825, Australia.
authors.forename: Mary K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW 1825, Australia.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW 1825, Australia.
authors.forename: Robyn
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lowe
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW 1825, Australia.
authors.forename: Srivalli V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Nagarajan
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW 1825, Australia.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lincoln
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001292:Attitude to Computers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000193:education*; D009042:Motivation; D012649:Self Concept; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*