ICT In Nursing

Introduction

The term, technology, well indicates the trends of the current century since the advents of computer systems and it can be identified elsewhere. When it comes to communication, technology has emerged as the Information Communication Technology (ICT) over the last three decades and ICT has greatly engaged with daily life as it entails remarkable advantages such as faster and more convenient communication, easier acquisition of information and better quality of life. It is noteworthy that the ICT also benefited healthcare systems. For example, technology has enabled health related professionals to manage surmounted data of healthcare systems and to improve the effectiveness of work flow, and these benefits have been reflected on enhanced patient safety (Bates and Gawande, 2003, McGonigle and Mastrian, 2009, Parente and McCullough, 2009). Thus, the importance of ICT competencies within healthcare professions cannot be overemphasized. It is also natural that nursing professionals should be equipped with high competencies in ICT. It has therefore attracted many researchers for its efficient delivery of nursing care and communication amongst other healthcare professionals (Cronenwett et al., 2007). However, previous nursing studies presented significant barriers for using the ICT such as user’s lack of ICT experience, confidence, competency and education as a human factor (Chang et al., 2011, Gilmour et al., 2008, Saranto et al., 1997). In continuing to understand and resolve some of these barriers and difficulties, some instruments have been developed and these may measure factors which influence nursing professionals’ ICT related attitudes and competencies (Chang et al., 2011). However, they are still experiencing a lack...

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...staff attitudes with only few factors (Ward et al., 2008).

To sum up, to measure nursing professionals’ attitudes towards ICT is vital, but it is hard to identify the factors which underpin attitudes, as many studies reported here indicates diverse and complex factor structures relating to the ICT attitudes. The most serious issue is that the reported instruments measuring the attitudes to date are controversial in relation to validity, although those instruments achieved satisfactory results in internal consistency reliability. This controversial issue should be tackled because the reliability is a sufficient condition rather than a necessary one in dealing with the validity for the development of an instrument (DeVon et al., 2007). Whilst some earlier studies performed EFA, very few studies have attempted CFA for verifying factor structures and validity from EFA.