Factors affecting online research by nurses in Taiwan
Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate predictors of online medical research by nurses. Design/methodology/approach - A cross-sectional study was conducted ana a representative sample of nurses was selected from three Taiwanese hospitals from 1 January to 31 March 2007. A total of 274 female nurses completed the questionnaire. Findings - The results indicate that the expectancy value of internet characteristics, attitude towards online information seeking and perceived credibility of online information significantly and positively predict online information-seeking behaviour in nurses. Specifically, the multiple hierarchial regression analysis revealed that the perceived credibility of online information is the strongest predictive variable of online information seeking. Originality/value - The findings; of this study suggest that an important task for professional organisations is to educate nurses in assessing the reliability of medical information found on the, web, such as looking for credible institutional sites, verifying available information with that from other sources or sites, and using common sense.
nurses taiwan attitudes online operations information retrieval