Perceived skills on information communication technology literacy (ICT) among nursing students with a view to impart hands on skills on ICT

INTRODUCTION

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the important buzzwords of today’s IT words. It has changed society into information society and our way of life. It has been integrated and created an impact in all the fields of life making it comfortable and easy.¹

The convergence of information and communication technologies as typified by the internet is increasingly having more influence on all aspects of society. It has had a transformative impact on the mode of information sharing and access globally. Information and knowledge disseminated through the slow process of oral communications or with paper materials can now be transferred rapidly from an individual to an infinite number of users through several media and formats. The education sector was among those that first embraced the use of the Internet, and it has continued to broaden the breadth and depth of opportunities within institutions of higher learning worldwide. Jackson, et al. (2011) remarked that the Internet will level the educational playing field due to its availability to everyone, everywhere, and any time, irrespective of gender, race/ethnicity, income or other socio-demographic characteristics.

Universities worldwide now invest a lot on internet access because it improves the exchange of ideas with fellow researchers in other institutions, regions or countries, furthers the sharing of information; promoting multidisciplinary research. Bon (2007) states that the Internet can substitute for expensive hardcopy libraries, by availing students’ access to scholarly information resources. Today, survival in academics without the Internet is hardly is impossible.²

Information and communication technology (ICT) has brought many changes in medical education and practice in the last couple of decades. Teaching and learning medicine particularly has gone under profound changes due to computer technologies, and medical schools around the world, particularly in industrialized countries.³

Recently there has been an increase in the implementation of e-Health applications in developing countries that includes telehealth, mobile health applications, electronic medical records, and health information management systems.⁴ The literature reveals that there is a need to improve computer skills amongst nursing students and highlight the dilemmas that face course developers in attempting to address this situation.⁵

Investigators felt a need to assess the perceived skills of nursing students in current settings since the use of ICT has become an important part of the curriculum. Emphasizing the integration of computer teaching at a nursing undergraduate level will help students to work in an everadvancing technological world. The study aimed to assess the perceived skills in ICT literacy among nursing students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A cross-sectional design with a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select 30 subjects in the study who met the inclusion criteria.

The reliability of the checklist on ICT literacy was checked by the split-half method among 10 samples, the reliability value was 0.76 for the perceived skills assessment checklist on ICT literacy.

The tool consisted of two sections, Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Perceived Skills Assessment Checklist on ICT literacy. There were 5 areas in the Perceived Skills Assessment Checklist which included general, Basics of Computer, MS Office, Internet, and Advanced applications.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION:

The data were collected in a selected nursing college in Mangalore. Ethical clearance & formal permission before the data collection was obtained. The researcher introduced herself to the participants of the study and the purpose of the study was explained. Confidentiality was assured and written consent was obtained. The participants completed the checklist in about 20 minutes. The participants were given hands-on skill training regarding Information Communication Technology literacy and opinionnaire was collected from each participant.

STATISTICAL METHODS:

The study used descriptive and inferential statistics for analysis and interpretation of data and SPSS software version ¹⁶.

RESULTS:

The result showed that the majority of the subjects 17 (56.7%) come under the age category of 20- 25 years.50% of the subject were from 1st-year PBBSC and 2nd-year PBBSC nursing respectively. All of the subjects had access to computers and the internet (100%). Most of the subjects had not undergone any formal ICT training (83.3%).

The study also found that 93.3% subjects were having highest perceived skills in changing the name of folder/ file, sending an email, ability to prepare PowerPoint, able to set up email and 13.3% of subjects were having lowest perceived skills in cloud computing, Awareness on the usage of (SPSS) Statistical Package for the Social Science.

DISCUSSION:

Description of the sample characteristics

The study showed that the majority of the nursing students 14 (47%) had good skills in ICT, 7 (23%) had excellent skills in ICT and 9 (30%) had average skills in ICT.

The present study shows that the majority of 17 (56.7%) of subjects are in the age group of 20-25 years.

The findings of the present study are contradictory to the findings of another study. A study was done to assess the knowledge and utilization of Information Communication Technology (ICT) among health science students at the University of Gondar, North Western Ethiopia showed that among 1096 students 21.4% belonged to the age group of 15-19 years, 74.6% belonged to 22-24 years, 3.3% belonged to 25-29 years and 0.6% was above 30-34 years.⁶

The findings of the present study are congruent with the findings of other studies. A study was conducted to assess perceptions of Information Communication Technology among undergraduate management students in Barbados. Out of 166 samples, 77% were males and 23% were females.⁷

In the present study, all the 30 samples had access to computers and the internet.

Description of Perceived skills in ICT

In the present study, the findings revealed that 47% of subjects had good perceived skills in ICT, 30% had average and 23% had excellent perceived skills in ICT.

The findings of the present study are congruent with the findings of other studies. A study was conducted to assess ICT knowledge, utilization, and perception among healthcare providers at National Hospital Abuja, Nigeria. Here majority 98.6% of the subjects had average knowledge and skills on ICT.⁸

Association between Perceived skills with selected demographic variables

A Chi-square test was used to find the association of perceived skills on ICT with selected demographic variables. The study shows that there was a significant association of age (P<0.05) with perceived skills.

The findings of the present study are contradicted with the findings of other studies. A study was conducted to assess the impact of Computer and Information Communication Technology Literacy on the academic achievement of medical and dental students at Shiraz University of medical sciences, Iran. The results revealed that there was no association between ICT and academic achievement.⁹

CONCLUSIONS:

Perceived skills in ICT and its utilization were low among nursing students. Providing training and continuous follow-up are necessary measures to increase the likelihood of the success of ICT literacy which can enhance the implemented e-Health systems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

We are thankful for management, the staff of Father Muller College of nursing, Mangaluru. We thank the participants of the study for their cooperation.

Conflict of interest – Nil

Source of funding- Self

Data in figure 1 shows that, 7 (23%) subjects had excellent skills and 14 (47%) subjects had good skills on ICT.

Data in table 1 shows that 77.27% subject had excellent level of perceived skills in basics of computer and 28.66% subjects were having average advanced related skills.

Data in table 2 shows that significant association was found between the age and perceived skills on ICT.

Data presented in table 3 shows that training on ICT implementation was (100%) among the students.