Factors influencing nurses' attitudes towards the use of computerized health information systems in Kuwaiti hospitals

This paper reports a survey of nurses' attitudes towards computerized health information systems, the characteristics that influence these attitudes and the level of nurses' skills in computer use.

The use of such systems in developed countries and in some developing countries has already become a reality. However, nurses as a group of care providers have been found to resist computerization, seeing computerized health information systems as dehumanizing, confusing and uncaring. Nurses with more computer experience tend to have more positive views; education and training positively influence attitudes; and younger and less experienced nurses may have more positive attitudes.

A structured questionnaire was used to measure the attitudes of nurses working in Kuwait towards computerization. A random sample of 574 nurses working in Ministry of Health hospitals were sent a questionnaire, and 530 replies were received (response rate 92.3%). The data were collected from November 2002 to January 2003.

Respondents generally had positive attitudes toward computerized health information systems. Analysis of variance revealed statistically significant differences in attitudes in relation to nationality, level of education, previous experience in computer use, and computer skills (P < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis showed that gender, nationality, education levels, and duration of computer use were statistically significant predictors of attitudes toward computerized health information systems (P < 0.05).

With adequate computerized health information system training, the implementation of computerized health information systems could be effective for nurses in providing quality health care, as found in other studies.