Necessary prerequisites for evidence-based practice: results of investigating nurses’ informatics competency and information literacy skills

Variables	n	%
Gender
Male	32	17.4
Female	152	82.6
Age groups
25	49	26.5
25–35	62	33.5
36–45	50	27.0
>45	24	13.0
Marital status
Single	63	34.3
Married	121	65.7
Work experience (years)
<5	82	44.6
5–10	28	15.2
11–15	42	22.8
16–20	12	6.5
>21	20	10.8
Work experience in ICU (years)
<5	114	62.0
5–10	31	16.8
11–15	24	13.0
16–20	4	2.2
>21	11	6.6
Work position
Head nurse	7	3.8
Nurse	177	96.2
Shift work
Fix	11	6.0
Rotation	173	94.0
The tendency to use databases
Low	27	14.7
Moderate	85	46.2
High	72	39.1
Attendance at research courses
Yes	32	17.4
No	152	82.6
Attendance at information literacy courses
Yes	42	22.8
No	142	77.2
Attendance at literature search and retrieval courses
Yes	40	21.7
No	144	78.3
Attendance at computer skills courses
Yes	28	15.2
No	156	84.7

1 Note: ICUs, intensive care units.

Table 2.

Scores of the intensive care nurses’ NI competency and its dimensions.

Variables	Minimum	Maximum	Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD per items
Computer literacy	11	50	30.20 ± 8.95	3.13 ± 0.89
Informatics literacy	13	65	38.36 ± 10.17	3.03 ± 0.78
Informatics management skills	7	35	20.13 ± 5.87	3. 01 ± 0.84
Total of NI competency	35	150	88.69 ± 22.76	3.05 ± 0.83

1 Note: NI, nursing informatics; SD, standard deviation.

Table 3.

Scores of use of different information resources for patient care and clinical decision-making.

Information resources	Categories	Mean	SD
Print	Pamphlets/handouts (produced by healthcare companies, hospitals)	3.08	0.90
	Reference books (e.g., medical dictionaries, encyclopedias)	2.67	1.07
	Textbooks	2.43	1.06
	Newspapers	3.35	0.99
	Journal articles	2.95	0.96
	Total	2.90	0.74
Electronic	Google (websites providing information about a specific medicine, treatment, or symptom)	2.70	1.08
	Hospital resources:electronic SOP (i.e., work instructions, support documents)	2.78	1.08
	Nursing e-books	2.31	1.08
	Digital medical and nursing libraries	2.54	0.99
	Up to Date	3.34	1.05
	Online tutorials provided by professional associations, medical libraries, and overseas hospitals	2.57	1.05
	Medical databases (e.g., CINAHL)	2.50	1.07
	Blogs on EBP	2.30	1.11
	Total	2.63	0.84
Human	Ward colleagues	3.60	0.87
	Physicians	3.03	0.90
	Nurse supervisor	2.89	0.99
	Professional friends working in other hospitals and clinics	2.69	0.99
	Nursing management staff	3.09	0.99
	Nursing Research Committee/EBP Group	2.98	0.97
	Total	3.05	0.65

1 Note: CINAHL, Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; EBP, evidence-based practice; SD, standard deviation; SOP, standard operating procedure

Table 4.

Comparison of scores of information searching skills and use of different search features.

Search features	Mean score	SD
Quick/basic search	3.17	1.11
Advanced search	2.97	1.11
Index browsing (e.g., author, title, resource)	2.72	1.11
Truncations/wildcards (e.g., ‘’, ‘?’)*	2.50	1.05
MeSH	2.25	1.29
Search Limits (e.g., publication date)	2.30	1.27
Proximity operators (e.g., W/nn)	1.95	0.99
Boolean operators
‘AND’	2.42	1.24
‘OR’	2.37	1.21
‘NOT’ or ‘AND NOT’	2.19	1.17
Total	2.48	1.15

1 Note: MeSH, Medical subject headings; SD, standard deviation.

Table 5.

Scores of knowledge about search operators.

Operators and items	N	%	Mean	SD
AND
Yes	59	32.1	0.32	0.04
No and not sure	126	67.9
OR
Yes	54	29.3	0.29	0.04
No and not sure	131	70.7
NOT
Yes	50	27.2	0.27	0.04
No and not sure	135	72.8
Proximity
Yes	39	21.2	0.21	0.04
No and not sure	146	78.8
Total
Yes	50	27.2	0.27	0.04
No and not sure	135	72.8

1 Note: SD, standard deviation.

Table 6.

Correlation between NI competency and information literacy skills in EBP.

Variables	Computer literacy	Informatics literacy	Informatics management skills	Total of informatics competency
Use of different information resources
Print	r = 0.36	r = 0.45	r = 0.40	r = 0.45
Print	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001
Electronic	r = 0.57	r = 0.58	r = 0.59	r = 0.64
Electronic	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001
Human	r = 0.33	r = 0.33	r = 0.36	r = 0.37
Human	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001
Total	r = 0.55	r = 0.59	r = 0.59	r = 0.63
Total	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001
Use of different search features	r = 0.61	r = 0.60	r = 0.58	r = 0.66
Use of different search features	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001	P = 0.001
Knowledge about search operators	r = 0.25	r = 0.21	r = 0.24	r = 0.25
Knowledge about search operators	P = 0.002	P = 0.004	P = 0.001	P = 0.001

1 Note: EBP, evidence-based practice; NI, nursing informatics.

Table 7.

Multivariate regression model for all variables and NI competency.

Variables	Beta	t	P-value
Use of different information resources	0.27	3.39	0.001
Information searching skills and use of different search features	0.51	5.89	<0.001
Knowledge about search operators	−0.10	−1.63	0.104
Frequency of selection of search statements	0.51	5.89	0.001
Gender	−0.089	−1.60	0.11
Age groups	0.046	0.61	0.54
Marital status	−0.300	−0.48	0.62
Work experience (year)	−0.033	−0.35	0.72
Work experience in ICU (year)	−0.135	−1.75	0.08
Work position	−0.090	−1.42	0.15
Shift work	0.018	0.29	0.77
The tendency to use databases	−0.069	−1.01	0.31
Attendance at research courses	0.043	0.63	0.52
Attendance at information literacy courses	−0.084	−1.29	0.22
Attendance at literature search and retrieval courses	−0.031	−0.43	0.66
Attendance at computer skills courses	0.064	1.09	0.27

1 Note: ICU, intensive care unit; NI, nursing informatics.

References

Authors

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fon-2024-0007 | Journal eISSN: 2544-8994 | Journal ISSN: 2097-5368

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Language: English

Page range: 67 - 76

Submitted on: Feb 16, 2023

Accepted on: Aug 31, 2023

Published on: Mar 26, 2024

Published by: Shanxi Medical Periodical Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

evidence-based practice,

nursing informatics,

nursing informatics competency, information literacy,

critical care nursing

Related subjects:

Medicine,

Assistive professions, nursing

© 2024 Jamileh Farokhzadian, Somayeh Jouparinejad, Mahdieh Montazeri, Elham Bakhshipour, Amirreza Sabzi, Fatemeh Falahati-Marvast, published by Shanxi Medical Periodical Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 11 (2024): Issue 1 (March 2024)