Understanding the Role of Emotions like Threat and Challenge in Explaining Nurses' Educators' Actual Use of Information Technology

Abstract

Today, in the 21st century, the academic nurse educators who are devoted to educate the nurses of tomorrow, have to be exposed to the technological era, in order to provide themselves and their student’s appropriate tools to handle the digital changes. One of the most urgent missions is to deal with negative emotions that might arise during the implementation of new Information Technology (I.T) and to promote a feeling of excitement (challenge) in order to help nurse educators gain knowledge and skills to use information and other technologies. The main goal of the study was to examine the academic nurse educators' emotions such as threat and challenge regarding the use of I.T, including a number of variables such as self-efficacy, innovativeness, attitudes, intention to use, and actual use of I.T. Method: This study was a quantitative research. The research tool was a written and online survey that was submitted to 109 academic nurse educators working at ten different academic nursing schools in Israel. Results: Threat negatively predicted actual I.T use, while Challenge positively predicted it. Personality factors like sense of innovation, self-efficacy and attitudes, fully mediated the direct effect of emotional factors. Conclusion: Awareness and activity to strengthen the connection between emotions' feeling and nurses' I.T use, will ensure a better integration of new technology in healthcare, and will promote a great benefit for the nursing profession.