Nursing students experience and attitudes to computers: A survey of a cohort of students on a Bachelor in Nursing Studies course

Abstract

Background The need for addressing the issue of training nursing students in Health Informatics [the discipline dealing with the application of information and communications technology (ICT) to health care] and incorporating training in the basic information technology skills is becoming a matter for much discussion. Literature reports that the previous computer experience of nurses can generate a positive or negative attitude to a specific computer system and influence the motivation to acquire new computer knowledge. Attempts to address this matter in Ireland came with the recommendation by the Syllabus of Nurse Training 2000 that ICT be included as a taught component within the curriculum. The lack of emphasis on ICT being taught as a formal component with no guidelines as to what level this ICT component should reflect, do little to assist either nurse educators or programme developers. Literature on information and communications technology in health care generally, and in nursing and midwifery education specifically, is now expand