Exploring ICT competencies in a Bologna Masters level nursing program

by Peter Kokol

University of Maribor, Faculty of Health Sciences

Maribor Slovenia
kokol@uni-mb.si

Abstract

Information communication technology (ICT) continues to rapidly develop and is incorporated in practically all health care professional and research fields including nursing. It is importance that practicing nurses and nursing students  acquire  competences to successfully employ ICT in their everyday practice to benefit patients and gain more satisfaction from their work.  In this paper we present a study in which we explored the skills and competencies acquired by Masters level nursing and health care management students in Bologna Masters level  programs.

 Introduction

Information communication technology (ICT) continues to rapidly develop and is incorporated in most health care professional and research fields including nursing.Prominent experts like Virginia Saba, Kathryn Hannah, Maureen Scholes, Elly Plyuter Wenting, Evelyn Hovenga, Marion Ball, and Heimar Marin are some of the pioneers in nursing informatics who have paved the way for this incorporation into nursing.  A key focus of their work has been the development of nursing information systems to improve clinical and management nursing functions (Marin, Rodriques, Delaney,  Nielsen, Yan, 2001) and identify critical competencies that nurses must develop.  During the NI 2009 Post-Congress, Skiba, Blazun, Ehrenberg, Marin and Moen (2009) defined and pointed out some main issues regarding personal health information management systems and preparing nurses to practice in a wired world.

To address these issues, many recommendations were set, including ways to develop knowledge and experiences with informatics in nursing education. It was noted that European nursing schools lack content to introduce ICTs in nursing programs, especially in new Bologna programs which are more focused on clinical practice and less on research, leadership, and ICT skills.

Even though nursing informatics is a specialty recognized by the American Nursing Association in 2001, it has received limited attention in nursing education curricula in Europe and elsewhere. Part of this problem is a lack of congruent ICT and informatics competencies that are acceptable and manageable across nursing education programs and practice areas. Literature search findings collected by Carter-Templeton, Patterson, & Russell (2009) using the terms “informatics competencies” and “nursing informatics competencies” (37 articles captured, six relevant) showed there is a wide variation among published informatics competencies related to content, presentation, and audience and that a general list of competencies that can be utilized by nurses at all levels is needed.  The results of a recent study (Jetté, Tribble, Gagnon, Mathieu & La, 2010) showed that even if nursing students feel competent using informatics in nursing, they still lack important resources for developing relevant ICT competencies for nursing practice.

The results of a recent study by Jetté, Tribble, Gagnon, Mathieu & L (2010) showed that even if nursing students feel competent using informatics in nursing, they still lack important resources for developing ICT competencies. A more specific study by Westra and Delaney (2009) focused on nursing leaders and defined a very detailed list of 92 competencies (24 competencies addressed computer skills, 40 addressed informatics knowledge, and 28 informatics skills). Likewise, the European Tuning project defined 40 generic and subject-specific competences for nursing professionals. One competency is specifically focused on ICT skills, and three others are closely related:

• Ability to interpret information sources,
• Ability to perform evidence based practice and
• Communication using technology.

 Exploring the ICT Competencies of Masters level Nursing students

An exploratory study was conducted in our new harmonized Bologna nursing  program to assess students perceptions of their level of nursing informatics and ICT competences as defined in the European Tuning project. The research study sample included 72 Masters level first year students from two different health care programs: nursing and health care management. Using structured surveys, students were asked to assess their level of competency using  a Likert rating scale that ranged from 1 to 5 (1 meant that  they do not agree at all  and 5 that they fully agree that they have mastered a particular competency). The results were analyzed using frequency plotting and correspondence analyses that also compared study program, type of study and average grade obtained during the program. The results are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Correspondence analyses for comparison of ICT skills among Master degree students

Figure 1.shows that the results for both management and nursing students are near the centre and clustered close together, contrary to another study where results from part time students are spread out more. This means that the perception of the competencies gained does not differ much between both programs, but more according to type of study, or whether students are in part time or full time study. Competency perceptions are quite regularly grouped together: most of the 5 (fully agree) responses are clustered in the middle along the right side, 4s on the bottom, 2s and 3s in the middle of the bottom, but the 1s are scattered irregularly

The part time students rated their competency levels at a 4 for most statements, meaning that they assessed their ICT competencies quite highly – the same pattern was shown by the nursing students. The management students and full time students tended to cluster around 3, meaning they assessed their competencies at a lower level than the nursing and part time students. It is also interesting to note students with an average grade less than 7.5 rated their competency levels at around 4, meaning that the least academic students perceived they had the best ICT skills.

Conclusion

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