How to enhance nursing students' intention to use information technology: the first step before integrating it in nursing curriculum.

Abstract

Today, in the 21st century, information technology has an important and critical role in the healthcare delivery system. Nursing educators already know and understand that they should integrate nursing informatics into the nursing curriculum to prepare future nurses for the new world of information technology. However, as of now, the core program of nursing studies in Israel does not put an emphasis on the skills required to properly use nursing informatics. The present research is the first step toward achieving this target by recognizing the importance of the human factor. The main goal is to examine the correlation between nursing students' attitudes and a number of variables: self-efficacy, threat, challenge, and innovativeness. This quantitative study used a convenience sample of nursing students in a bachelor's degree program at a large academic center in central Israel. Results show significant positive correlations between nursing students' attitudes to computer use and self-efficacy, a sense of challenge in using a computer, a sense of threat in using a computer, and previous experience with computers. The insights of these results will benefit nursing educators by helping them find creative ways to expose the students to the world of information technology and to improve the quality of future nurses.