How nurses seek and evaluate clinical guidelines on the Internet

Area of Science:

• Nursing Informatics
• Health Information Science
• Digital Health Literacy

Background:

• Nurses require internet access to clinical guidelines for evolving responsibilities.
• Current internet information-seeking skills among nurses are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• Assess nurses' strategies and challenges in seeking clinical guidelines online.
• Investigate criteria nurses use to evaluate online guidelines and websites.

Main Methods:

• 20 nurses participated in scenario-based tasks in 2008.
• Nurses used the internet to find guidelines for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
• Think-aloud protocol was employed during internet searches.

Main Results:

• Participants easily found general information but struggled with specific precautions.
• Nurses used few search terms and websites, indicating basic information-seeking skills.
• Searches were ineffective due to a mismatch between guidelines and nurses' tacit knowledge.
• Practical relevance and completeness were key evaluation criteria, more so than accuracy.

Conclusions:

• Nurses heavily rely on tacit knowledge for searching and evaluating guidelines.
• This reliance can be dangerous, potentially leading to inadequate nursing practice.
• Tailoring online guideline navigation and communication to nurses' tacit knowledge is essential.