Computer literacy of nurses in a community hospital: where are we today?

As the use of electronic health records continues to grow, it is imperative that nurses gain competency and confidence with computers and computer software applications.

A descriptive study of licensed registered nurses at a community hospital was completed to measure self-perceived computer literacy. The Gassert/McDowell Computer Literacy Survey© was used. The Pearson correlation was used to assess for a relationship between year of birth and computer literacy scores. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were conducted to assess for a relationship between educational level and computer literacy scores.

The nurses had little to no experience with nearly half of the items surveyed. A moderately positive correlation was seen between year of birth and computer literacy. The correlation between nurses' educational level and computer literacy was found to be statistically significant (p ≤ .05)

Basic computer classes may be beneficial to nurses, with training focused on specific skills, such as bibliographic database searching, to improve evidence-based practice.