Identifying and relating nurses' attitudes toward computer use

The purpose of this study was to measure nurses' attitudes toward computer use based on an adaptation of Vroom's expectancy theory, and identify variables that may correlate with these attitudes. Content validity and reliability for internal consistency were determined for the developed attitude questionnaire. Nurses' individual characteristics and computer-use satisfaction, beliefs, and motivation were correlated. Data analysis revealed that nurses' attitudes were significantly related (satisfaction to beliefs, r = 0.783, p less than 0.001; satisfaction to motivation, r = 0.598, p less than 0.001; and beliefs to motivation r = 0.651, p less than 0.001), supporting the model based on Vroom's expectancy theory. Computer knowledge significantly related to computer-use beliefs (r = 0.229, p less than 0.05). Length of computer experience (r = -0.265, p less than 0.05) and nursing experience (r = -0.239, p less than 0.05) related negatively to nurses' computer-use satisfaction.