Developing information literacy skills in pre-registration nurses: an experimental study of teaching methods

Area of Science:

• Health Sciences
• Education
• Library and Information Science

Background:

• Information literacy is crucial for nursing practice.
• Effective training methods are needed to impart these skills to nursing students.
• Traditional face-to-face sessions and online tutorials are potential delivery methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of an online information literacy tutorial versus a face-to-face session for nursing students.
• To assess the retention of information literacy skills one month post-intervention.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 77 first-year undergraduate nursing students.
• Participants received either an online tutorial or a face-to-face session.
• Search skills were assessed using a validated checklist before and after the intervention, and again at one month.

Main Results:

• Both teaching methods significantly improved nursing students' search skills (p<0.001).
• No significant difference in skill improvement was observed between the online and face-to-face groups (p=0.263).
• Skills remained stable at one-month follow-up for both groups, with no significant degradation (p=0.216).

Conclusions:

• Information literacy skills in nurses improve with both online and face-to-face instruction.
• Neither teaching method leads to skills degradation one month after the intervention.
• Online tutorials offer a viable alternative to traditional sessions for developing essential nursing information literacy.