Royal College of Nursing's Survey On Information Needs
25 July 2005
(brief excerpt)
"Patients may not be getting the best care possible because nurses have limited access to the latest research and information in their workplaces, according to research from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The survey of nurses’ information needs showed that nurses who have the time and easy access to health information at work are more likely to use their research to improve the care they give to patients. Over 1700 nurses responded to the RCN survey, making it one of the largest reviews of nurses’ information needs undertaken in the UK."

Barriers to nurses finding information:

• Limited access to the Internet for research at work.
• Large workload and little time
• Workplace policies, one third of nurses surveyed said it was "never acceptable for them to leave the workplace to do research to improve their nursing practice."

Nurses want more acces to full text journal articles and help finding the appropriate articles. “Health librarians are primed to help nurses to find information and improve their research skills. The role of the employer is crucial here and more efforts should be made to give nurses better access to the Internet and health libraries, and the time during working hours to do research. Ultimately, better informed nurses mean better care for the patients.”

I realize this survey was done in the UK, but I have to think that it isn't too far off the mark with the information needs of nurses in the US. Just from my unofficial and unscientific observations and conversations with nurses, their work environment does not usually lend itself to doing research or finding information for patient care.

Some hospitals have locked out all Internet access from clinical floor computers. So nurses and other healthcare personell are prevented from doing a simple PubMed or MDConsult search at the computer closest to the patient. If the computers on the floors can not access information outside of the hospital's intranet, nurses must find time in their already busy work day to find a computer that can access the Internet.

As hospitals try to become more "wired" it is a shame that they actually inhibit online knowledge by preventing access to the Internet.