Nursing Journal The Royal College of Nursing Information PDF

2008 Royal College of Nursing
186

Journal compilation 2008 Health Libraries Group.

Health Information and Libraries Journal

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25

, pp.186197
DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2007.00755.x

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

The Royal College of Nursings information needs survey
of nurses and health professionals

Ros Bertulis & Jackie Cheeseborough, Royal College of Nursing, London, UK

Abstract

Aims

: To nd out about the nursing communitys needs in the following areas:
information or knowledge to improve practice in the clinical area; information
to support lifelong learning and formal study.

Methods

: A questionnaire was circulated in summer 2004 containing ques-
tions on types of information source used for particular types of problem or
question; specic sources used; ease of access to various information sources
including computers and the Internet, and local health library; and workplace
culture and environment.

Results

: A total of 1715 usable questionnaires were completed and returned.
Signicant numbers of the nursing community have currently no or limited
access to computers. Nursing staff in the independent sector had less access to
computers and the Internet than those working for the National Health Service
(NHS). Workplace culture was as important as access to IT equipment.

Conclusions

: As a result of the survey, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is
working with the NHS and the independent health sector to improve access
and provide complementary services for the whole nursing community.

Introduction

In 2004, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
library and information services (LIS) carried out
a survey into the information needs of nurses and
other health professionals. The aim of the survey
was to nd out current information needs of all
the nursing community, not only RCN members,
so that we would have a good evidence base from
which to develop the RCN library and information
services and play an inuencing role to improve
nurses access to information.

Background and objectives

The Royal College of Nursing is the UKs foremost
professional association and trade union for
nurses, with nearly 400 000 members. RCN LIS
has physical libraries in all four countries of the
UK, but increasingly offers more and more of
its services electronically. The vision of its 1999
information strategy was to create access to
information wherever and whenever needed,
offering equity of service across the UK. Since
1999 there have been many changes in nurses
access to information with more information
available electronically, more information available
from other organizations and, most crucially of
all, more nurses having access to the Internet.
In 2004, we decided therefore to revisit the strat-
egy for meeting members local information needs.
As the rst step in this process, we decided to carry
out a UK-wide survey into the information needs
of nurses, midwives, health visitors and health care
assistants.
The aims of the survey were to nd out about
the nursing communitys needs in the following
areas:

Correspondence: Ros Bertulis, Royal College of Nursing, 20 Cavendish
Square, London W1G 0RN, UK. E-mail: rosamund.bertulis@
rcn.org.uk
Information needs survey of nurses and health professionals,

Ros Bertulis & Jackie Cheeseborough

Journal compilation Health Libraries Group 2008


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information or knowledge to improve practice
in the clinical area;
information to support lifelong learning and
formal study.
The ndings of the survey are written up in more
detail in two reports, one full

1

and one summary.

2

A shorter article in Library and Information
Research gives an abridged account of the survey.

3

Literature review

Access to the Internet.

A study carried out in
Canada in 1998 showed that nurses lagged behind
other groups in terms of workplace Internet access
and use, and that only a very small proportion of
them (1%) reported using the Internet at work for
more than 1 hour per week for practice information.

4

The authors attribute this largely to the fact that,
in many work environments, time taken to access
the Internet may be regarded as non-productive.
Duffy

5

echoes the view that many managers
and employers in the health care sector may regard
the Internet as a time waster. Such employers may
discourage Internet use explicitly by blocking wide
access across the organization or, more often, by
not fostering a supportive environment in which
people feel they can use the Internet freely.

5

Use of information resources

Thompson

et al

.

6

found that immediate colleagues
were perceived as more accessible as a source of
information for clinical problem solving than any
form of evidence-based technology, and human
information sources were overwhelmingly classed
as most useful in clinical decision-making.

7

This echoes the ndings of a study of nurse
practitioners in North Carolina, USA in 1998,
where respondents were asked to indicate the
weekly frequency of their information needs as a
result of patient encounters and their relative use
of a range of information resources. They used
supervisors for information around diagnosis and
peers (other nurse practitioners) for psychosocial
issues, with doctors and drug reference manuals as
the two most consulted sources.

8

The nurses in a small-scale UK study of the
information needs of theatre staff differentiated
their needs from those of doctors and saw nursing
information as patient- or care-centred and holistic,
in contrast to the medical or scientic information
required by doctors. They also wanted it in a form
suitable for imparting directly to patients.

9

Attitudes to evidence-based practice

An early qualitative study of Canadian nurses in a
medical/haematology unit found that there was
little opportunity or encouragement for nurses to
use research material on the job, and that the
workload measurement system did not include
information seeking as a nursing task. Nurses read
research literature and visited the local health
library in conjunction with educational courses,
but not to solve work-related problems. It called
for educators, managers and nurses to co-operate
in creating a workplace in which knowledge-based
practice is a realistic option.

10

Many of the nurses in a study of community
nurses in the Western Isles of Scotland, UK felt
they lacked the time to search for information and
did not view it as an essential part of their job. The
authors felt that creating an awareness that access
to information is relevant and important was
possibly more important than simply improving
access and wanted nurses to become engaged in
the information-seeking process to the extent that
consulting information sources becomes part of
their work routine.

11

It appears from the literature that nurses are less
advanced in their understanding of evidence-
based practice than doctors. For example, in a
recent study of 3000 US nurses, nearly half were
unfamiliar with the term evidence-based prac-
tice.

12

This is in stark contrast to an earlier study
of 1000 family physicians in Ontario which found
that 95% of respondents felt evidence-based
medicine (EBM) principles were important to the
practice of medicine.

13

Methods

We developed a questionnaire in collaboration
with RCN colleagues from across the UK, health
librarians and an independent statistician. We
asked about types of information sources used for
particular types of problem or question; specic
sources used; ease of access to various information




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sources including computers and the Internet, and
the local health library if they had one; and
workplace culture and environment. Questions
were phrased in a variety of formats including tick
boxes and open responses.
We decided to use a hard-copy questionnaire to
ensure that we reached the whole target audience,
not just those health care professionals with good
access to information technology and the skills
and condence to use it. Thus, no one was excluded
as a result of lack of condence using information
technology (IT)a major problem with online
surveys.
The survey contained 42 questions, although as
many of these contained several statements requir-
ing a response, in total there were nearly 300 vari-
ables to code for each questionnaire. Given the
length of the questionnaire, we felt that merely
posting the survey out at random to members
would be unlikely to yield a high response rate.
We therefore decided to use local champions to
distribute questionnaires in their workplaces,
encourage colleagues to complete them and who
would then be responsible for returning them.
These local champions, 129 in all, consisted of
RCN activists and health librarians. Local cham-
pions were encouraged to reach as wide a cross-
section of their workforce as possibleregistered
nurses, midwives, health visitors and health care
assistantsand to include colleagues who were
not RCN members.
Questionnaires were also posted to a random
selection of RCN forum members, and to individual
RCN members responding to publicity on the
website or using any of the four physical libraries.
Sectors which would be difcult to reach via local
champions, such as primary care, the independent
sector, and nursing staff in care homes, were
reached via direct mailing or at RCN events.
Questionnaires had the RCN region of the
respondent printed on them, and the code of the
local champion where applicable. They were
otherwise anonymous. The questionnaires were
distributed between 1 June 2004 and 16 July 2004.
Freepost envelopes were enclosed to encourage a
higher response rate.
In total, 7862 questionnaires were distributed
and 1715 usable questionnaires completed and
returned, a response rate of 22%. Fifty-ve
questionnaires were returned blank and 19 only
partially completedthese were excluded from
the analysis. The forms were coded and entered
into an SPSS database (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL,
USA), then analysed with the help of an independent
statistician. A full copy of the questionnaire is
available from the authors.

Limitations of methodology

The sample of health care professionals we used
was self-selecting, and it is likely that only members
of the nursing community for whom information is
an issue would take the trouble to complete a 30-
minute questionnaire. As the questionnaire involves
self reporting, the data we gathered are based on
respondents perceptions, which are subjective and
may not always be completely accurate. There is
also the possibility of respondents mis-interpreting
questions, especially in areas with which they are
not familiar, such as the Internet. To minimize this
problem, we were careful to include examples,
especially around electronic resources.

Results

Prole of respondents

The survey reached a good cross-section of the
target audience, making comparisons across
regions and UK countries possible. A key variable
was work sector. The largest group, 43.5% of the
sample, worked in NHS hospitals (where this
report cites NHS, this has also been used to mean
the NHS equivalents in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland). However, there was also good
representation from other sectors: 20% worked in
NHS community/general practice; 9% in NHS
other (including NHS care homes and hospices);
and 15% in the independent sector (Table 1). (It is
hard to determine how representative our sample
is of the nursing community as a whole. It seems
that, in September 2004, around 69% of qualied
nurses worked in the NHS,

14

but this does not
differentiate between hospitals and the com-
munity. It is difcult to get exact gures for the
independent sector as the information comes from
disparate sources, uses a variety of denitions and
is prone to double counting.)




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There were also responses from all the job
grades. Eighty per cent of our respondents were
registered nurses, 6% health care assistants, 2%
health visitors, 3% midwives, 6% students and
3.5% other (a mix of managers and academics).
Sixteen per cent of respondents always worked
night shifts and another 20% sometimes worked
night shifts.
Five per cent of qualied respondents had
received their training outside of the UK, and just
over 3% had moved to the UK within the last
2 years. (It is worth noting here that an RCN
report from 2003 found that, in England, around
1 in 12 nurses on the NMC Register had been
recruited from overseas.)

15

Five per cent said that English was not their rst
language. Just 2.4% (39 respondents) reported that
they had a disability that they considered affected
their ability to search for and nd information.
Seventy-seven per cent of respondents said they
were members of the RCN, 23% said they were
not, gures which roughly represents the overall
picture for the nursing community as a whole.

General access to information

Access to a computer and the Internet.

Fifteen per
cent of respondents reported having no access
to a computer at work, rising to 38% in the
independent sector (Table 2).
Of those respondents who did have access to a
computer at work, on average (mean = 6.2; median
= 3), respondents had to share a computer with six
other people (if people stated 2030 or 1015, etc.,
the midpoint of the two gures given was used; e.g.
for 1015, the midpoint was 12.5, this was rounded
up and 13 was entered into the SPSS database).
Nineteen per cent of respondents overall reported
never using the Internet at work in relation to their
work, compared with 14.5% from NHS hospitals,
and a signicantly higher gure of 45.4% from the
independent sector (Table 3). It is worth noting
Table 1 Respondents by work sector
Sector of work Frequency Per cent
NHS hospital 738 43.5%
NHS community 341 20.1%
NHS other 158 9.4%
Independent hospital 51 3%
Independent care home/hospice 176 10.4%
Independent sector other 25 1.5%
Academic 66 3.9%
School 12 0.7
Bank/agency 51 3%
Work in more than one
sector including National
Health Service (NHS)
47 2.8%
Armed forces 2 0.1%
Regulation and Inspection 5 0.3%
Prison (state) 14 0.8%
Overseas 9 0.5%
Missing 20
Table 2 Do not have access to computer at work
Frequency Per cent
All respondents 240 14.7
NHS hospital 74 10.4
NHS community 18 5.5
Independent sector 94 37.9
Table 3 Frequency of use of Internet at work in relation to work
Daily Weekly Monthly Occasionally Never
All respondents Frequency 474 445 103 305 309
% 28.9 27.1 6.3 18.6 18.8
NHS hospital Frequency 186 209 59 149 103
% 26.3 29.5 8.3 21 14.5
NHS community Frequency 96 111 21 56 48
% 28.2 32.6 6.2 16.4 14.1
Independent sector Frequency 45 31 8 42 106
% 19.3 13.3 3.4 18 45.5




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here that in May 2005 another RCN survey found
that only 9% of respondents reported never using
the Internet at work.

16

However, as this was an
online survey, it is not surprising that Internet use
would be higher among this group.
Forty-nine per cent of respondents reported
always having access to the Internet at work when
they needed it, 20% usually and 14% sometimes.
Seventeen per cent of all respondents said they
could never get access to the Internet at work when
they needed it. Again the independent sector had
less access (Table 4).

Access to a local health library (e.g. NHS hospital
or university)

Respondents were given a series of statements
about their use of and access to local health
libraries. Table 5 shows those who strongly agree
or agree with these statements broken down by
sector. Note that only those who had access to a
local health library were asked to complete the
section: 228 (13%) of respondents did not and
were not included in the analyses of this section.
Only 17.4% of respondents from the independent
sector reported using the local health library
regularly and 17.3% found it easy to access,
compared with respondents from NHS hospitals,
where the respective gures are 48.7% and 59.5%.
There were marked regional differences in
response to the statement the health library is
easy to access when I need it (

2

= 67.0, d.f. = 48,

P

< 0.00). Respondents in the south-west were
least likely to strongly agree or agree that the
health library was easy to access when they needed
it (41%). They were also the most likely to strongly
disagree or disagree with the statement (37.5%).
The regions where respondents were most likely to
agree that the library was easy to access were
Wales and Yorkshire and Humber.

Use of information

Respondents were asked a series of questions
about how and where they got access to various
information sources (Table 6).
The most popular place to obtain books was the
respondents local health library. Journal articles
were obtained from the local health library and
from the Internet at both home and work. The
most usual place to access electronic databases
was via the Internet both at home and at work.
Always Usually Sometimes Never
All respondents Frequency 792 327 234 272
% 48.6 20.1 14.4 16.7
NHS hospital Frequency 344 161 103 88
% 49.4 23.1 14.8 12.6
NHS community Frequency 179 78 45 29
% 54.1 23.6 13.6 8.8
Independent sector Frequency 68 24 37 103
% 29.1 10.3 15.8 44
Table 4 Access to the Internet at work
when needed
Table 5 Use of local health library
All NHS hospitals NHS community Independent sector
Use regularly Frequency 683 337 128 38
% 42.7 48.7 39.8 17.4
Easy to access when I need it Frequency 727 396 116 36
% 47.5 59.5 37.8 17.3
Open at convenient times Frequency 828 430 148 57
% 53.4 64.2 47.7 26.3




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The RCNs library and information services
were most commonly accessed via the Internet
at both home and work, as were other RCN
resources.
Respondents were asked how far they were
prepared to travel to access information for a
variety of purposes (Table 7). Whereas 11.1% of
respondents stated they were not prepared to leave
the workplace at all to nd how to do type infor-
mation, only 5.9% of respondents reported being
unwilling to leave the workplace to nd informa-
tion for a formal course. Similarly a higher pro-
portion of respondents (67.2%) were prepared to
travel for 30 minutes and over to access informa-
tion for lifelong learning, as compared with 49.6%
who would travel for 30 minutes and over to access
how to do type information.

Improvements in information services

Respondents were offered a menu of different
information services and asked to specify their
frequency of use. Below are the most popular
services, based on percentages of respondents who
used/would use the service daily or weekly:
list of useful websites for eld of practice
(41%);
ability to e-mail an expert with a question (23%);
critical appraisal of new research (21%);
e-mail newsletter summarizing news in eld of
practice (21%);
part of the RCN website dedicated to eld of
practice (20%);
regular guidance on how new research could
change nursing practice (20%).
Respondents were also given a blank box in
which to write what they thought would most
improve information services for them, and 1036
respondents opted to do this. The top ve choices
were as follows:
better access to computers and the Internet
(31%);
better training on where and how to nd infor-
mation (25%);
dedicated/protected time to studyor just
more time to study (15%);
Table 6 Where respondents access different information sources (percentages)
Table 7 How far respondents will travel to access information (percentages)
At my local
health library
Via the Internet
at work
At local Royal
College of Nursing
(RCN) resource centre
At an RCN
library
Via Internet
at home
Books 61.2 15.1 4.4 8.4 20.9
Journal articles or reports 42.6 40.5 5.8 7.5 48.7
Electronic databases, e.g. CINAHL, MEDLINE 22.7 41.7 2.3 3.0 40.5
Websites on the Internet 13.5 47.6 1.9 2.6 61.0
RCN library and information service 6.5 20.2 6.5 7.7 23.2
Other RCN resources 5.7 17.1 5.9 5.2 19.5
Own organizations publications 18.2 32.4 1.3 1.2 8.6
Wont leave
workplace Less than 5 min Up to 15 min Up to 30 min Up to 1 h More than 1 h
Information for formal course 5.9 5.7 20.8 33.2 21.6 12.4
To keep up to date with
nursing news generally
14.5 15.3 25.7 27 9.8 7.4
To keep up to date with latest
information for your eld of
nursing
11.6 10.4 23.6 28 12.5 13.3
How to do type information 11.1 11.1 27.5 29.6 12.7 7.3
Evidence for nursing practice 8 8 24.3 32.4 17 9.8




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better access to more full-text journalsat no
extra cost (10%);
list of useful websites for specialist area (10%).

Information or knowledge to improve practice in
the clinical area

Attitudes to evidence-based practice.

We asked a
whole range of questions to probe attitudes to
evidence-based practice. We found a strong link
between the level of encouragement respondents
are given by their organizations for this type of
information seeking and employees perceptions
of whether or not they have time for information-
seeking activities, such as reading journal articles
or reports, or visiting the local health library
(Tables 8 and 9).
We also found that this relationship extended to
respondents perceptions on ease of use of various
information sources, including journal articles
and reports and the local health library (Tables 10
and 11).
There was also evidence of a relationship between
employer attitudes to evidence-based practice and
respondents ability to access electronic resources
at work (Table 12).

Information sources to improve practice in the
clinical area

Respondents were also asked about their use of
sources for different types of information need
(Table 13). Not surprisingly, nursing colleagues,
both peers and supervisors, are cited as being
Table 8 Time to read journal articles and encouraged to search for evidence during working hours
Table 9 Time to visit the health library and encouraged to search for evidence during working hours
No time to read journal articles and reports
Total Always Usually Sometimes Never Dont know
Encouraged to search for
evidence to support nursing
practice during working hours
Always Frequency 8 30 350 154 3 545
% 1.5% 5.5% 64.2% 28.3% 0.6% 100.0%
Sometimes Frequency 9 46 316 62 4 437
% 2.1% 10.5% 72.3% 14.2% 0.9% 100.0%
Never Frequency 9 20 175 50 3 257
% 3.5% 7.8% 68.1% 19.5% 1.2% 100.0%
Total Frequency 26 96 841 266 10 1239
% 2.1% 7.7% 67.9% 21.5% 0.8% 100.0%
2
= 37.6, d.f. = 8, P < 0.00.
Do not have time to visit the health library
Total
Strongly
agree Agree No opinion Disagree
Strongly
disagree
Encouraged to search for
evidence to support nursing
practice during working hours
% 7.4% 26.4% 14.2% 45.8% 6.2% 100.0%
% 10.1% 36.6% 15.1% 36.1% 2.0% 100.0%
% 18.0% 38.6% 13.2% 26.3% 3.9% 100.0%
Total Frequency 120 372 164 442 49 1147
% 10.5% 32.4% 14.3% 38.5% 4.3% 100.0%
2
= 54.2, d.f. = 8, P < 0.00.




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Table 10

Encouraged to search for evidence to support nursing practice during working hours and it is easy to identify which
journal articles/reports are most relevant

Table 11

The health library is easy to access and it is acceptable to leave the workplace to search for evidence to support practice

Table 12

Encouraged to search for evidence to support nursing practice during working hours and access electronic databases
via Internet at work
Encouraged to search for evidence to support
nursing practice during working hours
Total Always Sometimes Never
Easy to identify which
journal articles/reports
are most relevant
Always Frequency 72 25 15 112
% 64.3% 22.3% 13.4% 100.0%
Usually Frequency 369 261 120 750
% 49.2% 34.8% 16.0% 100.0%
Sometimes Frequency 198 197 137 532
% 37.2% 37.0% 25.8% 100.0%
Never Frequency 9 11 14 34
% 26.5% 32.4% 41.2% 100.0%
Dont know Frequency 3 6 4 13
% 23.1% 46.2% 30.8% 100.0%
Total Frequency 651 500 290 1441
% 45.2% 34.7% 20.1% 100.0%

2

=

55.0, d.f. = 8,

P

< 0.00.
Health library is easy to access when needed
Total
Strongly
agree Agree No opinion Disagree
Strongly
disagree
Acceptable to leave workplace
to search for evidence to
support practice
% 30.7% 39.0% 17.1% 10.5% 2.6% 100.0%
% 10.4% 46.3% 19.4% 17.6% 6.3% 100.0%
% 8.2% 31.8% 24.4% 25.6% 10.0% 100.0%
Total Frequency 153 441 224 204 73 1095
% 14.0% 40.3% 20.5% 18.6% 6.7% 100.0%

2

=

102.0, d.f. = 8,

P

< 0.00.
Encouraged to search for evidence to
support nursing practice during
working hours
Total Always Sometimes Never
Dont access electronic databases via Internet at work Frequency 293 310 224 827
% 35.4% 37.5% 27.1% 100.0%
Access electronic databases via Internet at work Frequency 384 224 75 683
% 56.2% 32.8% 11.0% 100.0%
Total Frequency 677 534 299 1510
% 44.8% 35.4% 19.8% 100.0%

2

=

87.4, d.f. = 2,

P

< 0.00.




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useful for nding how to do type information,
echoing the ndings of Thompson

et al

.

6

and
Codghill.

8

Information needed to support lifelong learning
and formal courses of study

Access to the Internet and time to study.

In addition
to gauging respondents general access to the
Internet, we were particularly interested in
knowing whether Internet access coincided with
when people actually had time to study. When
asked if they could get access to the Internet when
they have time to study, 42% said always, 30%
said usually, 19% said sometimes and only 7%
said never. For those who work in the in-
dependent sector, 13% could never get access to
the Internet when they had time to study.
Again, there was a strong link between employer
attitudes and employees perceptions of their access
to information. Tables 14 and 15 show some of the
strong relationships we found between employer
attitudes to evidence-based practice and employees
access to the Internet when they have time to study.
Nurses who never have access to the Internet
when they have time to study are less likely to
report that it is acceptable for them to leave the
workplace when searching for evidence to support
Table 13 Information sources respondents nd very useful (percentages)
Source
For nding out
how to do something
For completing an assignment
when on a formal course of study
Books 38 57.4
Journal articles or reports 65.2 79.3
Documents or publications from own organization 45.2 34.9
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) library and information service 21.7 29.5
Other RCN resource, e.g. RCN direct, RCN website, RCN
publications
32.6 33.8
Electronic database, e.g. MEDLINE, CINAHL 40.4 51.9
Websites on the Internet (not RCN) 44.5 52.2
Local health library, e.g. Trust library, university library,
postgraduate medical centre
34.1 47
Nursing colleague (peer) 43.8 23.5
Nursing colleague (supervisor or manager) 40.2 21
Other medical/health professionaldoctors, consultants,
general practitionsers, surgeon
24.7 7.5
Table 14 When I have time to study I can get access to the Internet and it is acceptable to leave the workplace to search for
evidence to support practice
When I have time to study I can get access to
the Internet
Total Always Usually Sometimes Never
Acceptable to leave workplace to
search for evidence to support practice
Always Frequency 163 71 18 4 256
% 63.7% 27.7% 7.0% 1.6% 100.0%
Sometimes Frequency 250 208 119 29 606
% 41.3% 34.3% 19.6% 4.8% 100.0%
Never Frequency 136 111 114 52 413
% 32.9% 26.9% 27.6% 12.6% 100.0%
Total Count 549 390 251 85 1275
% 43.1% 30.6% 19.7% 6.7% 100.0%
2
= 109.8, d.f. = 6, P < 0.00.




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practice, and that there is a process at work which
allows them to have input into changing practice.

Hours of study and employer attitudes

There is also a link between employer attitudes to
evidence-based practice and the amount of hours
respondents are prepared to spend on studying
and lifelong learning. For example, being encour-
aged to search for evidence increases the number
of hours that nurses study during working hours
(Table 16).

Information sources to support lifelong learning
and formal courses of study

The most useful sources for completing an
assignment when on a formal course of study were
journal articles and reports, followed by books,
then websites and electronic databases (Table 13).
A higher percentage of respondents (57.4%) report
nding books useful for completing an assign-
ment, compared with only 38% nding books
useful for how to do type information.

Discussion

Summary of ndings

The issues around nurses workplace access to com-
puters and the Internet identied by Estabrooks

et al

.
4
and Duffy
5
still have resonance. A
signicant number of respondents still have limited
or no access to a computer and the Internet at
work, especially in the independent sector. It is
worth noting here that the bulk of our independent
Table 15 When I have time to study I can get access to the internet and there is a process at work where I can have input into
changing nursing practice
Table 16 Hours of study at work and encouraged to search for evidence at work
When I have time to study I can get access to
the internet
Total Always Usually Sometimes Never
There is a process at work where
I can have input into changing
nursing practice
% 56.6% 29.3% 10.8% 3.3% 100.0%
% 37.9% 33.0% 22.0% 7.1% 100.0%
% 27.6% 22.1% 32.5% 17.8% 100.0%
Total Frequency 547 382 244 90 1263
% 43.3% 30.2% 19.3% 7.1% 100.0%
2
= 106.9, d.f. = 6, P < 0.00.
Hours of study at work
Total 0 110 1140 40 +
Encouraged to search for evidence
to support nursing practice during
working hours
% 7.3% 69.1% 21.2% 2.5% 100.0%
% 16.2% 62.6% 19.5% 1.6% 100.0%
% 28.0% 55.9% 14.7% 1.4% 100.0%
Total Frequency 153 679 204 21 1057
% 14.5% 64.2% 19.3% 2.0% 100.0%
2
= 51.1, d.f. = 6, P < 0.00.
Information needs survey of nurses and health professionals, Ros Bertulis & Jackie Cheeseborough
Journal compilation Health Libraries Group 2008 Health Information and Libraries Journal, 25, pp.186197
196
sector respondents (70%) came from independent
care homes or hospices; around half of them
reported having no access to a computer at work
and over half (56%) never having access to the
Internet at work. These organizations are either
prot making or in the voluntary sector, and as
such are likely to be unwilling or unable to provide
more than the bare minimum in terms of IT.
There is very high demand for value-added
information services that help nurses nd good
quality, up-to-date, relevant evidence in manage-
able amounts. Respondents want a blended
servicephysical and electronic libraries, librarians
as well as online servicesa nding which was
echoed in our LIBQUAL survey of 2006.
17
Cultural issues appear to affect nurses ability to
access evidence and the support of employers is
shown to be crucial. Nursing staff whose employ-
ers have positive attitudes towards using evidence
to change their practice appear to have better
access to a whole range of resources, including the
Internet and the local health library. They are
more likely to report having time for information-
seeking activities and the skills to use a variety of
electronic resources. This seems to add weight to
the view of Farmer et al. that creating an aware-
ness of the importance and relevance of access to
information is possibly more important than
simply improving access.
11
Conclusion
We are using the evidence from the survey to
inform our future direction around the following
strategic objectives: improving basic to advanced
information skills; tailoring information provision;
acquiring and delivering relevant resources;
inuencing the e-health policy agenda; developing
effective knowledge management systems. We
have also carried out a restructuring of our services
into a new Information and Knowledge Manage-
ment department.
Many health librarians in the UK are already
using this evidence to improve information services
for nursing staff; for example, to recruit extra
library staff. RCN and other health librarians
have an inuencing role to play in continuing to
improve nursing colleagues access to information
and to inuence employers in this area. Cultural
attitudes have as much impact on nurses access to
information as physical access to IT. This is more
difcult to resolve. The RCN needs to work with
the NHS and the independent health sector to
improve access and provide complementary ser-
vices for the whole nursing community, and that
should lead to better patient care.
Key Messages
Implications for Policy
Signicant numbers of the nursing commu-
nity have no or limited access to information
technology (IT) and the Internet.
Nurses in the independent sector have less
access to information.
Employers attitudes are crucial and have as
big an impact on nurses information-seeking
habits as physical access to IT.
Librarians and information professionals
have an inuencing role to play in ensuring
that nurses have access to appropriate
information.
Implications for Practice
Librarians and information professionals
need to provide up-to-date good quality rele-
vant evidence for busy nurses in manageable
amounts.
Nurses require a blended service, with physical
resources and support from people, as well as
online information.
References
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summary report of an RCN survey. London: Royal College
of Nursing, 2005. Available from: http://www.rcn.org.uk/
publications/pdf/TheInformationNeedsOfNurses.pdf
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Received 2 April 2007; Accepted 8 October 2007

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