-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Increased demand for medical or healthcare services has meant that nurses are to take on a more proactive and independent role intending to patients, providing basic treatment and deciding relevant clinical practice. This, in turn, translates into the need for nurses to be able to translate research and evidence into their practice more efficiently and effectively. Hence, competencies in looking for, evaluating, synthesizing and applying documented information or evidence-based practice becomes crucial. This article presents a quantitative study that involved more than 300 nurses from a large government hospital in Singapore. A self-reporting questionnaire was developed to collect data pertaining to evidence-based practice and activities, including those that demonstrate information literacy competencies. Results seem to suggest that the nurses preferred to use print and human information sources compared to electronic information sources; were not proactive in looking up research or evidence-based information and, instead, preferred such information to be fed to them; and that they perceived they lacked the ability to evaluate research papers or effectively search electronic information related to nursing or evidence-based practice. It was also found that more than 80% of the nurses have not had any training related to evidence-based practice.
Health Informatics Journal 03/2012; 18(1):12-25. · 1.00 Impact Factor
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Evidence-based practice (EBP) provides nurses with a method to use critically appraised and scientifically proven evidence for delivering quality health care to a specific population. The objective of this study was to explore nurses' awareness of, knowledge of, and attitude toward EBP and factors likely to encourage or create barriers to adoption. In addition, information sources used by nurses and their literature searching skills were also investigated.
A total of 2,100 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to registered nurses in 2 public hospitals in Singapore, and 1,486 completed forms were returned, resulting in a response rate of 70.8%.
More than 64% of the nurses expressed a positive attitude toward EBP. However, they pointed out that due to heavy workload, they cannot keep up to date with new evidence. Regarding self-efficacy of EBP-related abilities, the nurses perceived themselves to possess moderate levels of skills. The nurses also felt that EBP training, time availability, and mentoring by nurses with EBP experience would encourage them to implement EBP. The top three barriers to adopting EBP were lack of time, inability to understand statistical terms, and inadequate understanding of the jargon used in research articles. For literature searching, nurses were using basic search features and less than one-quarter of them were familiar with Boolean and proximity operators.
Although nurses showed a positive attitude toward EBP, certain barriers were hindering their smooth adoption. It is, therefore, desirable that hospital management in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, develop a comprehensive strategy for building EBP competencies through proper training. Moreover, hospital libraries should also play an active role in developing adequate information literacy skills among the nurses.
Journal of the Medical Library Association JMLA 07/2011; 99(3):229-36. · 0.99 Impact Factor
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: A study was conducted at Singapore's National University Hospital to elicit registered nurses' attitudes, knowledge, barriers, facilitating factors, education, and training regarding evidence-based practice.
A 13-question survey that was administered to all registered nurses yielded 1,114 (75.4%) usable returns for analysis.
Findings showed that Singapore nurses had a positive and supportive attitude toward evidence-based practice but lacked the competence and knowledge to conduct it. Time constraints were identified as the main barrier to implementing evidence-based practice. There is a need for proper training, mentoring by senior nurses, and adequate time for evidence-based practice. Nurses with a higher level of nursing education who indicated the greatest perceived barriers tended to have less difficulty applying evidence-based practice but identified a need for more training in information skills.
Evidence-based practice is still in its infancy in Singapore compared with hospitals in other developed countries.
The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing 05/2011; 42(11):522-8. · 1.05 Impact Factor
-
J. Information Science. 01/2010; 36:719-732.
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The development of information technology and telecommunication has created both opportunities and challenges for business
organizations. On the one hand, it provides various channels and applications for accessing, processing and distributing information;
on the other hand, it imposes higher requirements of information literacy (IL) skills of employees for dealing with information.
Despite the number of studies undertaken to investigate the role of IL in the workplace, few of them have integrated IL skills
with a specific business management activity, and even fewer of them have tried to evaluate the impact of IL on real business
applications. This study aims to investigate the role of IL skills in environmental scanning (ES), a strategic information
system used by organizations to cope with environmental changes. It will use both quantitative and qualitative methods: the
quantitative approach through questionnaire survey will focus on finding statistically significant effects; the qualitative
method through face-to-face interview is expected to discover more explorative information. The scope of the research is limited
to SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), as they form a significant chunk of the economy in many countries, and they are more
sensitive towards environmental uncertainties due to their limited financial resources. This study is expected to fill the
knowledge gaps and build up a new model of environmental scanning as a systematic information system with consideration of
the effect of IL skills and information technology applications.
KeywordsInformation literacy-environmental scanning-SME-Singapore
12/2009: pages 95-109;
