Nurses computer literacy and attitudes towards …

1 JOURNAL OF NURSING INTERVENTIONSN urses computer literacy and attitudes towardsthe use of computers in health careSati G rdas Topkaya MSc BSNUnit Charge- nurse , Orthopaedics and Traumatology Clinic, Taksim Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, TurkeyNurten Kaya PhD BSNA ssociate Professor, Health Sciences Faculty, Istanbul University, Istanbul, TurkeyAccepted for publication March 2014G rdas Topkaya S, Kaya Journal of Nursing Practice2014; : Nurses computer literacy and attitudes towards the use of computers in health careThis descriptive and cross-sectional study was designed to address Nurses computer literacy and attitudes towards the useof computers in health care and to determine the correlation between these two variables. This study was conducted withthe participation of 688 Nurses who worked at two university-affiliated hospitals.

2 These Nurses were chosen using astratified random sampling method. The data were collected using the Multicomponent Assessment of computer Literacyand the Pretest for attitudes towards Computers in Healthcare Assessment Scale v. 2. The Nurses , in general, had positiveattitudes towards computers, and their computer literacy was good. computer literacy in general had significant positivecorrelations with individual elements of computer competency and with attitudes towards computers. If the computer isto be an effective and beneficial part of the health-care system, it is necessary to help Nurses improve their words:attitude towards computers, computer competency, computer literacy , nursing profession advances in step with the healthnecessities of a society, and it is regulated in accordancewith the prevailing health-care system, with provision ofquality services to patients being a top priority.

3 The roleand responsibilities of Nurses in health-care services canchange when new technology is introduced or existingroles are use of technology and computersin health care has been reported to improve Nurses decision-making and competencies and to increase thequality of health-care practice as a result. computer -basedinformation systems can provide assistance to Nurses inhealth-care ,3To ensure efficient and effec-tive use of computers in health-care environments, it isnecessary to determine Nurses attitudes towards the useof 6 The most important determinant of attitudes towardscomputer use in health care is thought to be computerliteracy. computer literacy is briefly defined as the abilityto use a computer . Nevertheless, various definitions havebeen given for computer literacy , such as the ability tocontrol [a] computer in achieving certain goals , theability to use different computer applications , the abilityCorrespondence: Nurten Kaya, Health Sciences Faculty, IstanbulUniversity, Demirkap Cad.

4 Karabal Sk. Bak rk y Ruh ve SinirHastal klar Hastanesi Bah esi i i 34740 Bak rk y, Istanbul,Turkey. Email: article was originally written as a master s thesis for theFundamentals of Nursing programme at Istanbul UniversityInstitute of Health Journal of Nursing Practice2014; : 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltdto comprehend [the] economic, psychological andsocial effects of computer [s] on [the] individual andsociety , and the ability to use [a] computer [for] accessto information, [for] communication and [in the] problemsolution process .7 9 The ability to use computers is animportant prerequisite for Nurses and nurse candidates,who can benefit in clinical practice from acquiring healthand nursing information via computer . We shouldaddress the factors that might affect Nurses computerliteracy levels and attitudes towards computer use inhealth care.

5 Using these analyses, we should developstrategies to help Nurses benefit from computer use inhealth 3 Several studies in the international literature haveanalysed Nurses computer literacy , their attitudestowards computer use and the determinants of ,5,10 20 Shoham and Gonen,5 Bruminiet al.,18 Simpson and Kenrick,20 McNeilet Larameeet that Nurses computer -related attitudeswere generally positive. On the other hand, Campbell andMcDowell23reported that the Nurses in their study hadlittle to no experience with nearly half of the items in theGassert/McDowell computer literacy Survey. Asidefrom that study, it was not possible to access any studythat analysed Nurses computer literacy . In addition,studies analysing Nurses attitudes towards computer usein Turkey are ,3 This descriptive and cross-sectional study aimed toaddress Nurses computer literacy and attitudes towardsthe use of computers in health care and to determine thecorrelation between these two and sampleThis study was conducted between September andDecember 2011 with Nurses who worked at twouniversity-affiliated hospitals (referred to as A and B) inIstanbul.

6 The population consisted entirely of nursesfrom hospitals A and B. For 95% reliability, 95% powerand 3% sampling error margin, the necessary samplesize was determined to be 688 Nurses by statisticalmethods. An additional 50 Nurses were included in thesample population as a backup plan in case of missingdata. Accordingly, 384 Nurses from Hospital A and 354nurses from Hospital B were included in the , the total sample population consisted of included in the study were chosen using thestratified random sampling method. The sample wasstratified according to Nurses working units. The onlyinclusion criterion for participation in this studywas consent to participate. There was no total of 688 Nurses from the sample of 738 wereincluded in the final analysis ; 34 Nurses could not bereached for reasons such as annual leave or maternityleave, and 16 surveys could not be evaluated because ofincomplete data.

7 Consequently, the survey response ratewas The necessary sample size calculated wasalready 688. Thus, the target nurse number identification formNurses gender, age, educational attainment, nursingexperience, working unit and job title were recorded on anurse identification Assessment of computer LiteracyThe Multicomponent Assessment of computer literacy (MACL) was developed by Robin Kay25in 1990 andwas translated into Turkish by K l n and Salman9in MACL is a seven-point Likert-type scale that consistsof four subscales, and each subscale consists of sixstatements about attitudes towards computers. Thesubscales are Basic Skills (BS), Application SoftwareSkills (ASS), Programming (P) and computer Aware-ness (CA).25To determine scale reliability, Kay25calcu-lated Cronbach s alpha coefficient for each subscale; thefollowing coefficients were found: for BS, forASS, for CA and for P.

8 K l n and Salman9calculated the alpha coefficients , , and BS, ASS, CA and P, respectively. In the present study,the general reliability coefficient was ; the coefficientvaried between and for the subscales (Table 1).The reliabilities of the scale and subscales were observedto be fairly high, and a similarity in study findings wasnoticed between the studies of Kay25and K l n for attitudes towards Computers inHealthcare Assessment ScaleThe Pretest for attitudes towards Computers inHealthcare (PATCH) Assessment Scale was developed by2S G rdas Topkaya and N Kaya 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty LtdKaminski,26and its second version was released in this study, we used the second version. The scaleconsists of 40 questions to determine Nurses feelings andattitudes towards the use of computers in environmentswhere health-care services are provided.

9 Possible scoresrange from 40 to 40. Additionally, the classification andinterpretation of the findings were performed accordingto Table 2. The validity and reliability of the Turkishversion of PATCH were established by Kaya and As t .1 The adaptation of the scale to the Turkish language wasperformed via back-translation, and the translated scalewas submitted for expert review to determine the contentvalidity. Its test retest reliability, internal consistency andcriterion-related validity (concurrent validity) wereexamined. The test retest reliability ranged from for individual PATCH items and was for thetotal scale. For internal consistency, corrected item totalcorrelations ranged from to , and Cronbach salpha was Concurrent validity was examined withcorrelation between the attitudes towards ComputersQuestionnaire and PATCH Assessment Scale scores, andthere was a significant positive correlation (r= ,P< ).

10 The findings concerning the reliability andvalidity of the Turkish version of the PATCH AssessmentScale indicate that this instrument can be used in studiesconducted in the present study, Cronbach salpha was determined to be for the PATCH Assess-ment Scale (Table 1). The data in the present study par-alleled those in the study by Kaya and As t .1 Therefore,the PATCH Assessment Scale data obtained from thesampling group in the present study were concluded tobe variablesIn this study, the independent variable was the MACL score and the dependent variable was the PATCH Assess-ment Scale of working Nurses , with their names, the unitsthey worked in and task lists, were obtained from twohospitals for sample estimation. Nurses were selected forthe study using numbers from these lists.