Abstract

Objectives: This research aimed to evaluate the awareness of nursing students about the place and importance of computer and information technologies in nursing profession.

Methods: The research planned in the descriptive design was conducted between January-April 2017 with 553 undergraduate students studying at a university faculty of nursing. The data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of questions about the use and importance of information technology in health care. Analysis of data Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 21 package program. Significance value was accepted as p <0.05.

Results: Nearly all of the students (97.5%) stated that they think information technology is important in health. According to the students, in the clinic, information technologies were used to record especially medical data (59.9%), to reach patient records / health information (58%), to evaluate the patient (44.1%), to use treatment and intervention protocols (46.1%), Clinical management (44.7%), evaluating patient outcomes (47%), attaining health care policies of the clinic (51%), reaching evidence based research records (54.1%), and making professional individual development (45.2%). The majority of nursing students stated that the computerization of nursing records seemed to be a waste of time in the first place, but they later thought that they would save time (51.5%). Also, they participated that spending too much time on the computer will cause spending less time for patient care (67.1%).

Conclusion: Health services are rapidly changing and developing, which is why it is necessary to use new developments in nursing and transfer them to practice. It is believed that nursing students, who are future professionals of the nursing profession, will contribute to the content of nursing profession and education programs in the awareness of the place and use of computer and information technologies in patient care.