Introduction
To respond to the information needs of medical and
paramedical science specialists with technological advances in the field of
information, the desire to use information technology (IT) has increased for
specialists in this field to be aware of current scientific information and
solve clinical problems, treatment, education and research [1].
The application of information technology in the health system has significant
advantages for the professionals providing health services, including
increasing access to information and up-to-date resources of medical sciences [2]. Today, healthcare organizations around the world have
implemented information technology to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and
patient safety [3-6]. On the other
hand, not having a specific purpose for using new technology, satisfaction with
the apparent entry of technologies, and insufficient recognition of the
capabilities of information technology are mentioned as its weaknesses [7, 8]. Nursing and midwifery play one of
the most important roles in all health care that is affected by information
technology [9]. Information technology supports traditional
and advanced nursing and midwifery practices in all fields [10].
Care and technology should be used to help manage actions and process nursing
and midwifery data [11].
In addition, digitalization has led to the development of
methods that provide opportunities for nurses to monitor patients at home [12-14]. The review of studies showed
that factors such as the impracticality of nursing research, not having enough
time, and the lack of support from the healthcare organization were the main
obstacles to not using up-to-date information sources among nurses [15, 16].
Furthermore, studies in the field of education showed
that nursing students in developing countries still lack the necessary training
to use new information systems to access the required information and in
general information literacy training [17].
In nursing and midwifery education, information
technology education is included in the curriculum of these students to empower
the students of these two fields. Some studies reported that the use of
computer information resources will increase with the increase of nurses'
computer skills [18]. Considering the changes in the field
of nursing, it is expected that the ability of nursing and midwifery students
has increased in accessing the best clinical information and the opportunity to
use research-based information in clinical decisions. Therefore, the purpose of
this study is to investigate the role of the information technology course
during the internship from the point of view of nursing and midwifery students
in Mashhad.
Material and Methods
Study design and participants
This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in
2023. After the description of the research, the participants entered the study
with informed consent. All people's information has been used anonymously and
confidentially.
Data collection instruments
A questionnaire was designed by the research team of this
study to investigate the role of the information technology course during the
internship from the point of view of nursing and midwifery students. First, a
questionnaire was designed containing two columns, the first column containing
the names of the information elements and the second column the degree of
importance of each information element based on a five-point Likert scale (1 to
5); Scale 1 indicates very high importance, scale 2 indicates high importance,
scale 3 indicates moderate importance, scale 4 indicates low importance, and
scale 5 indicates very low importance .The face validity of the questionnaire
was tested by 9 faculty members of Varastegan institute for medical sciences,
and its reliability was measured using the test-retest method (Cronbach's
alpha=0.94). This questionnaire contained 22 questions including how to teach
information technology (5 questions), the effectiveness of this course in the
workplace (11 questions), and plans for future use (6 questions). This questionnaire was designed electronically and sent to
the participants.
Intervention
This study was conducted among nursing and
midwifery students of Mashhad Medical Sciences. Initially, an advertisement was
sent to all nursing and midwifery students, and they were invited to
participate in the study by stating the goals and objectives of the study. They
were asked to give their consent if they were willing to participate in the
research. This stage lasted for 2 weeks. Then, 216 participants were randomly selected among the
volunteers, and an online meeting was held to clarify the research goals and
work steps, and the questions and ambiguities of the individuals were answered.
Then, after receiving the participants' consent, an electronic questionnaire
was sent to them and they were asked to answer all the questions in the
questionnaire and send it to us within a maximum of 1 month. After receiving
all the questionnaires, statistical analysis was performed.
Data analysis
Data were entered in SPSS version 19 software. Standard
deviation and mean were used to describe continuous variables, and percentage
and frequency were used to analyze descriptive data.
Results
A total of 216 participants responded to this
questionnaire (response rate: 100%), which included 162 women and 54 men. According
to Table 1,
the majority of students stated that the information technology course was
presented practically and the contents taught in this course were on the topics
of the Ministry of Health. Moreover, more than half of the students stated that
the material presented in this course was useful (61%) and the professor's
teaching method was satisfactory (59%). Almost half of the people believed that
this lesson is useful in other subjects as well (52%). According to Table 2,
the majority of students stated that the information technology course was
necessary during the internship (65%) and the material taught in this course
was used (61%).
In addition, 125 people believed that information
technology knowledge is effective for working in medical centers, and 181
people believed that this course is useful in completing cases effectively. 162
people also stated that this course has improved their IT knowledge (75%). In
general, 149 people expressed their satisfaction with the presentation of this
course (69%) and almost half of the people believed that this course made them
interested in IT.
Table 3 includes the opinions and views of the students of
these two majors regarding the improvement of IT teaching in the future. A
small number of students believed that the number of theory units in this
course should be increased (31%), while the majority of people believed that
the number of practical units in this course should be increased (72%).
According to Table
3, 102 people felt the need to increase computer skills, 158 people
felt the need to increase information technology skills, and 123 people felt
the need to participate in the workshop. Finally, a significant number of
Students said that increasing their IT skills would improve their job status
(77%).
discussion
Considering the electronification of patient records in
hospitals and the importance of accurate information recording by medical
staff, if there is an effective role of information technology course during
internship, it is necessary to present this course more practical and
applicable way for nursing and midwifery students. Moreover, to improve the IT
skills of nursing and midwifery students, there is a need to revise this lesson
in the educational curriculum. Therefore, this study was conducted to
investigate the role of information technology courses during the internship
from the point of view of nursing and midwifery students in Mashhad. The
findings of the current research showed that 47% of students much and very much
need to increase their computer skills, 73% of people much and very much need
to increase their information technology skills, and also 57% of the
participants need much and very much to attend in the workshop. In this regard,
in a study conducted by Eley et al. to investigate the current knowledge and
future educational requirements of nurses in the field of IT and computers,
almost half of the participants stated that to better meet the needs of IT and
computers, need more training in their jobs [19].
Likewise, another study aimed at investigating nurses' perceptions of the use
of computer technology and understanding the meaning of this technological
change in nurses' work was conducted by Tsarfati et al. They stated that since
nurses are the first line of treatment in emergencies, Therefore, there is a
need for sustainable education and tools for identification and treatment to
become part of the curriculum of future nurses [20].
Besides, 61% of the participants stated very much that the material taught in
this course was used during their internship. In that case, in another study
conducted by Eley et al. to determine the current use of IT by nurses and its
obstacles, they stated that 86% of the respondents used computers at work [21]. In addition, this study showed that the majority of people
are very satisfied with the presentation of this course (69%).
Similarly, in a study conducted by Singh et al. to
investigate nursing students' views on the use of IT in nursing education, most
people had a positive attitude towards IT [22]. In a study
conducted by Zayim et al., nursing students also showed positive opinions about
IT [23]. This study provides valuable insights regarding
the existing need for the application of information technology courses during
internships at universities and educational centers. However, this study had
some limitations. First, since students choose to enter the study based on
their own will, there may be bias in the selection of samples. Additionally,
considering that this study was conducted only among undergraduate students, as
a result, the number of available samples was limited. According to the profession
of nurses and midwives and their high workload, face-to-face training is
undoubtedly challenging for them. Within this context, previous studies have
proven the effectiveness of technology-based education, including the use of
virtual reality technology, artificial intelligence, and telemedicine, due to
its comprehensive and easy access, and cost-effectiveness [24-32]. Due to the increasing growth of
digital technology, more studies are suggested for the effect of using other
technologies, including simulation-based learning and its application in
nursing education.
Conclusion
According to the results of the present study, it seems
that there is a need to present the information technology course more
practical and applicable way for nursing and midwifery students, and there is
also a need for the practical presentation of the information technology course
by most of the respondents (72%). In addition, the
results indicate that the presentation of
this course is very prominent in acquiring the skill of completing the
patient's record. 73% of the answers were about paying more attention to this
subject in the educational curriculum and assigning more units due to its high
applicability during the internship.
Acknowledgement
We hereby express our gratitude to the Varastegan
Institute for Medical Sciences who helped us in conducting this research.
Author’s contribution
NE: Conceptualization, data
curation, investigation, writing the original draft, review and editing; AK:
Formal analysis, methodology, validation, writing the original draft; KG: Formal
analysis, methodology, software, writing the original draft; SAFA:
Conceptualization, data curation, supervision, writing the original draft, review
and editing; HM: Resources, visualization, writing the original draft; MRMH:
Conceptualization, methodology, validation, writing the original draft, review and
editing.
All authors have provided final approval of the version
submitted.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding
the publication of this study.
Ethical Approval
All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant
guidelines and regulations. The study has been approved in ethical committee of
the ethical committee of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (approval
number IR.MUMS.REC.1402.123). In this study the Informed consent was obtained
from all individual participants.
Financial disclosure
No financial interests related to the material of this
manuscript have been declared.
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, Kosar Ghaddaripouri3
, Hossein Molazemian1,
Mohammad Reza Mazaheri Habibi1,*