Identifying and relating nurses' attitudes toward computer use

Area of Science:

• Nursing Informatics
• Health Psychology
• Organizational Behavior

Background:

• Understanding nurses' attitudes towards computer use is crucial for effective technology adoption in healthcare.
• Vroom's expectancy theory provides a framework to explore motivation and performance in relation to computer use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To measure nurses' attitudes toward computer use using an adaptation of Vroom's expectancy theory.
• To identify variables correlating with nurses' computer use attitudes, including satisfaction, beliefs, and motivation.

Main Methods:

• Developed and validated an attitude questionnaire for nurses' computer use.
• Correlated individual characteristics, computer use satisfaction, beliefs, and motivation using statistical analysis.

Main Results:

• Significant positive correlations were found between satisfaction and beliefs (r=0.783), satisfaction and motivation (r=0.598), and beliefs and motivation (r=0.651).
• Computer knowledge positively correlated with computer use beliefs (r=0.229).
• Length of computer experience (r=-0.265) and nursing experience (r=-0.239) negatively correlated with computer use satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• The study supports Vroom's expectancy theory model in explaining nurses' attitudes toward computer use.
• Interventions aimed at enhancing nurses' computer use should focus on improving satisfaction, beliefs, and motivation.
• Addressing nurses' experience levels may be important for optimizing computer use satisfaction.