Staff Nurses: a user profile

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Staff Nurses a user profile

• Richard Crookes
• Robbie Lumsden
• Ruth Muscat

20th February 2008
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Information Needs of Staff Nurses I

• Why do Staff Nurses need information?
• Improve Clinical Practice
• Patient care, Evidence-Based-Nursing
• Support Lifelong-learning
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
• Support formal study
• Part-time, Distance Learning

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Information Needs of Staff Nurses II

• What are the issues for Staff Nurses?
• Access to computers internet
• Home, library, clinical area
• Access to healthcare library services
• Location, opening hours, resources
• Awareness of electronic resources
• RCN, NLH, local electronic subscriptions
• Information Literacy training
• Useful sites, current awareness, critical
  appraisal

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Information Needs of Staff Nurses III

• Key Findings
• Nurses with better access to information more
  likely to change practice as a result of research
• Significant number still with no or limited
  access to work-based computers
• High demand for valued-added services to
  identify good quality, up-to-date information
• Demand for a hybrid service traditional and
  electronic resources
• Very high demand for IL training

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ICT Skills of Staff Nurses I

• What level of skills do they have?
• Around 30 feel they need basic computer skills
  training
• Around 60 feel they would benefit from studying
  for the ECDL

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ICT Skills of Staff Nurses II

• Are there any problems with teaching ICT skills?
• Lack of time to learn and practice using ICT
  skills
• Resistance to learning
• Nurses being given administrative work
• Takes them away from the real work of patient
  care
• I didnt come into nursing to use a computer

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ICT Skills of Staff Nurses III

• IL frame
• Personal Relevance
• Teaching focuses on helping users find
  motivation. Learning is about finding personal
  relevance and meaning.

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Assessing Staff Nurses IL profile I

• Likely to be quite diverse
• Age, prior experience of information seeking,
  access to and experience of ICT
• We need to
• find out what they are able to do
• compare this to what they need to be able to do
• show them ways of applying skills learnt in
  different contexts thus increasing confidence in
  their ability to seek information in a more
  professional manner

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Assessing Staff Nurses IL profile II

• IL frames (Bruce et al., 2006)
• Competency frame
• IL viewed as a set of competencies/skills where
  information contributes to performance at the
  required capability
• Learning to Learn frame
• IL viewed as a way of learning where information
  is internalised and constructed by learners in
  order to develop professional thinking patterns.

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Strategies to assess Staff Nurses IL profile

• Snapshot of existing user needs and skills via
  user needs survey or diagnostic questionnaire
• Log and analyse requests for help in library
• Ask informally at start of training sessions
• Use training feedback information
• Medium to long-term user satisfaction survey

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Supporting Staff Nurses IL needs I

• Training
• 1-to-1 just in time training
• Ongoing program of training sessions covering a
  range of skills and competencies
• Critical appraisal workshops / journal clubs
• E-learning or blended learning packages
• Training guides and supporting documentation
• Ad hoc help and support over the phone to
  reinforce training

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Supporting Staff Nurses IL needs II

• Beyond training
• Wide range of resources to cater for different
  needs and abilities
• Adequate hardware and facilities for training and
  personal use
• Support and help with specific literature
  searches
• Build in feedback where possible
• Patience and flexibility!!

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References

• Bruce, C., Edwards, S., Lupton, M. Six frames
  for information literacy education a conceptual
  framework for interpreting the relationships
  between theory and practice. Italics, 2006, 5
  (1) 1-18.
• Report of key findings of RCNs survey of
  Information Needs of Nurses, Health Care
  Assistants, Midwives and Health Visitors
  Executive Summary. London Royal College of
  Nursing (RCN), 2005. Available at
  http//www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/
  112082/003216.pdf Accessed on 13 February 2008
• Timmons, S. Nurses Resisting Information
  Technology. Nursing Inquiry, 2003, 10(4)257-259.