Challenges of Information and Communication Technology Utilization Among Undergraduate Community Health Nursing Students in Tanta University, Egypt

Abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) continues to rapidly progress and is integrated in practically all health care professional and research fields including nursing. It is essential that nurses and nursing students acquire competences to successfully utilize ICT in their education and practice to benefit patients and gain more satisfaction from their work. This study was conducted to explore the Challenges of Information and Communication Technology Utilization among Undergraduate community Health Nursing Students in Tanta University, Egypt. A descriptive cross sectional design was used for the study where the entire 4^th year students who registered with community health nursing departments were recruited (600 students) to participate. A response rate of 84% (504 students) was recorded. A validated structured questionnaire was used for data collection over a period of four weeks. The data collected were organized, tabulated and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. The results indicated that the challenges of utilizing ICT as stated by the students include slow/poor internet speed/access (84.3%) and lack of ICT facilities (80.4%) especially in the rural communities. Other challenges as stated by the respondents are difficulty in accessing the required information (68.7%) and expensive internet subscription (68.5%). The study concluded that the utilization of ICT among the respondents was associated with challenges. A significant challenge is the access to the required information and the lack of ICT facilities. It is therefore recommended that the faculty and the university management ensure adequate provision and maintenance of ICT devices to the students with corresponding accessibility.