Computer Literacy Study: Report of Qualitative Findings

Computer literacy and information literacy are critical to the future of nursing. The very nature of health care is being transformed in response to environmental drivers such as the demands for cost–effective delivery of high quality services and enhanced patient safety. Facilitating the quality transformation depends on strategic changes such as implementing evidence-based practice (Institute of Medicine, 1999), promoting outcome research (Lamb, G., Jennings, B., Mitchell, P., & Lang, N., 2004), initiating interdisciplinary care coordination [Zwarenstein, M., Bryant, W. (2004). Interventions to promote collaboration between nurses and doctors. The Cochrane Library(I)], and implementing electronic health records (Effken, J., & Carly, B., 2003). Information management serves as a central premise of each of these strategies and is an essential tool to facilitate change. This report of the analysis of qualitative data from a national online survey of baccalaureate nursing education programs describes the current level of integration of the computer literacy and information literacy skills and competencies of nursing faculty, clinicians, and students in the United States. The outcomes of the study are important to guide curriculum development in meeting the changing health care environmental demands for quality, cost–effectiveness, and safety.