Competencies and Barriers to the Use of Nursing Informatics among Nurses in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Healthcare Facilities in Nigeria

Authors

  • Aanuoluwapo Omobolanle Olajubu Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
  • Omolola Oladunni Irinoye Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
  • Adekemi Eunice Olowokere Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12856/JHIA-2014-v2-i1-85

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Nurses have always been at the forefront of patient’s care and are expected to provide safe and quality care that is moderated by technology to consumers of health care. To meet these expectations, nursing informatics competencies are critical and essential for nursing practice. This study explored nurses’ knowledge, perception of their competencies and the barriers to the use of nursing informatics at the three levels of care in a State in Nigeria. This was done with the purpose of collecting baseline data to inform intervention for knowledge update and enhanced use of nursing informatics in practice.

Methods: Adopting a cross sectional survey design, data was collected from 350 nurses from 1 tertiary, 6 secondary and 30 primary health care facilities using multistage sampling technique from 6 towns that have at least two out of the three categories of health care facilities in the State,. Proportionate samples were drawn based on the population of nurses in the 3 categories of health facilities with 175 from tertiary, 115 from secondary, and 60 from primary health care facilities.

Results: The result showed a fair knowledge of nursing informatics by 55.4% of the respondents. In each of the three levels of competency, respondents perceived themselves as ‘competent’ and ‘not competent’ based on their self assessment. ‘Limited access to computer’ was the most perceived barrier by 55% of respondents to the utilization of nursing informatics.

Conclusions: The study concluded that the competency of nurses in nursing informatics is poor due to various perceived barriers.

Keywords: Competencies Informatics Barriers Nurses Nigeria

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Aanuoluwapo Omobolanle Olajubu, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
    Department of Nursing Science. Lecturer II
  • Omolola Oladunni Irinoye, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
    Department of Nursing Science. Associate Professor
  • Adekemi Eunice Olowokere, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
    Department of Nursing Science. Lecturere II

References

Technology Informatics Guiding Education Reform, (2007). Informatics Competencies for Every Practicing Nurse: Recommendations from the TIGER Collaborative. Retrieved 06/10/2011 from http://www.tigersummit.com/uploads/3.Tiger.Report_Competencies_final.pdf

Greer, H. (2012) Nursing Informatics Competencies: Implications for Safe and Effective Practice. Honors The-ses. Paper 1775. http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/1775/

Frisch, N. & Borycki, E. (2012). Working in a virtual environment. University of Victoria School of Nursing-Research and Schorlarship Publication, 7, 4-5. Retrieved 12/09/12 from www.uvic.ca/.../nursing/.../communique/07_Communique_spring_2

Kaminski, J. (2012). Nursing informatics process- Infusing nurses with power for 21st century. Retrieved 28/08/2012 from www.nursing-informatics.com/process.html

Hegney, D., Buikstra, E., Eley, R., Fallon, T., Gilmore, V., & Soar, J. (2007). Nurses and information technolo-gy: Final report. Retrieved 06/10/2011 Available from: http://www.anf.org.au/it_project/PDF/IT_Project.pdf

Canadian Nurses Association. (2001). What is nursing informatics and why is it important?Nursing Now: Issues and Trends in Canadian Nursing, 11. Ottawa: Author. Retrieved 24/08/2012 from http://wapsrv2.acs.ucalgary.ca:4450/rid=1H28Y9YFT-1JNYC88-1N8/NursingInformaticsSept_2001_e%5B1%5D.pdf

Kaminski, J. (2011). Nursing Informatics Competencies: Self – Assessment. Retrieved 04/09/2011 from nursing-informatics.com/niassess/competencies.html

Graves, J. R., & Corcoran, S. (1989). The study of nursing informatics. Image Journal of Nursing School Win-ter; 21(4), 227–31. Retrieved 28/08/2011 from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2807330

American Nurses Association Council on Computers in Nursing. (1995). Report on the designation of nursing informatics as a specialty. Congress of Nursing Practice unpublished report. In Saba, V., McCormick, K. Essen-tials of Computers for Nursing. (2nd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.

American Nurses Association (2008). Nursing informatics: Scope and standards of practice, Silver Springs, MD, American Nurses Association. p.65.

Dreyfus, H. & Dreyfus, S. (1980). A Five-Stage Model of the mental activities involved in direct skill acquisition. Operations Research Center Report. University of California, Berkeley, from http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a084551.pdf

Benner, P. (1984). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in clinical nursing. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley. From http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/

Patricia_Benner_From_Novice_to_Expert.html

Kaminski, J. (2010). Theory applied to informatics – Novice to Expert. CJNI: Canadian Journal of Nursing In-formatics, 5 (4), Editorial. http://cjni.net/journal/?p=967

Yamane, T. (1967). Statistics: An Introductory Analysis, 2nd Edition, New York: Harper and row.

Raja, E.J., Mahal, R., & Masih, V.B. (2004). An exploratory study to assess the computer knowledge, attitude and skill among nurses in health care setting of a selected hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics (OJNI). 8 (1). From http://ojni.org/8_1/raja.htm

Royal College of Nursing United Kingdom. (2005). Information needs of nurses, health care assistants, mid-wives and health visitors. Summary Report. Retrieved 02/10/2011 From http://www.rcn.org.uk/publications/pdf/TheInformationNeedsOfNurses.pdf

Hwang, J., & Park, H. –A. (2011). Factors Associated With Nurses’ Informatics Competency.CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing: 29(4), 256-262. doi: 10.1097/NCN.0b013e3181fc3d24. from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21076284

Estabrooks, C., O'Leary, K., Ricker, K., & Humphrey, C. (2003). The internet and access to evidence: How are nurses positioned? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 42 (1), 73. From: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02581.x/abstract

Downloads

Published

2014-12-29

Issue

Section

Research Article

How to Cite

Competencies and Barriers to the Use of Nursing Informatics among Nurses in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Healthcare Facilities in Nigeria. (2014). Journal of Health Informatics in Africa, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.12856/JHIA-2014-v2-i1-85