A Descriptive Study to Assess the Knowledge and Attitude of the Staff Nurses Regarding Nursing Informatics in Selected Hospital, Bangalore

Health and Nursing Information Science is the study of how health care data is acquired, communicated, stored, and managed, and how it is processed into information and knowledge. This knowledge is useful to nurses in decision-making at the operational, tactical, and strategic planning levels of health care. Healthcare professionals should be able to utilize IT in both an efficient and effective manner to promote optimal outcomes for both inpatient and outpatient patient populations, as well as to meet nursing sensitive outcomes. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) (2002) suggested that IT could play a significant role in the prevention of medical errors and improve client care.

1. Toassess the knowledge regarding nursing informatics of the staff nurses. 2. To assess the Attitude regarding nursing informatics of the staff nurses. 3. To determine the association between knowledge regarding nursing informatics among staff nurses with selected demographic variables.

Quantitative, Descriptive study was conducted in ESIC Medical College & Model Hospital at Rajajinagar, Bangalore. The convenient sampling was used for the study. The knowledge questionnaire and Attitude scale were distributed among 60 staff nurses. The data were analyzed by using descriptive, inferential statistical methods.

Demographic description of samples by frequency and percentage shows that majority of the samples (31)51.7% belong to the age group of 26–27 years, (24)40% of the samples were BSc (N) & (24) 40% of the samples were PCBSc (N) and (51)85% of nurses not had any previous knowledge and (9)15% were had knowledge regarding nursing informatics. Distribution of knowledge scores regarding nursing informatics shows that (54)90% of nurses had poor knowledge, whereas (6) 10% of nurses had average knowledge. Attitude scores shows that (32)53% of staff nurses had negative aitude, whereas (27)45% of staff nurses had neutral Attitude and (1)2% of staff nurses had positive Attitude regarding nursing informatics. There was significant association between knowledge and education, years of experienceat p < 0.05.

The study shows that most of the staff nurses have poor knowledge and negative Attitude towards nursing informatics. At present, nursing informatics is an emerging field in Health care industry to improve information management and communications in nursing to improve efficiency, reduction of costs and enhance the quality of care. National nursing organizations also support the need for nurses to update their knowledge on computer literate and in the nursing informatics.