A Descriptive Study to Assess the Attitude and Skill in Usage of Computer Among Registered Nurses in BMCH General Ward, Chennai

In recent years, the use of computers in the healthcare system has become more important for easy retrieval of medical information. This advancement has a positive impact on patient care among health care providers. Objectives: To assess the level of attitude and skill in use of computer among the nurses, to find the correlation between attitude and skill in use of computer among the nurses, to find out the association between the level of attitude and skill in use of computers with the selected demographic variables. Methodology: An Exploratory Descriptive method was used and the study was conducted in General wards at BMCH, Chennai. 110 registered nurses were selected using convenient sampling technique. 3-point Likert's scale was used to assess the level of attitude and observational checklist for assessing the level of skill in use of computers among registered nurses. Results: The study revealed 68 (62%) had favourable attitude, 31(28%) had most favourable attitude and 11(10%) had unfavourable attitude, 53(48%) had adequate skill, 38(35%) had moderately adequate skill, 19 (17%) had inadequate skill in use of computer. There was a correlation between level of attitude and skill in use of computer at the significant level of p value 0.021. There was a significant association between age and educational qualification with level of attitude and there was a significant association between age, area of work and attended training programme. Conclusion: The study result showed that 62% of registered nurses favours using computers for patient care, 48% possessed adequate skills which revealed a gap of 14%. The study suggested to conduct in-service education and training program to promote the use of computers in patient care. Keywords: Use of computer, Attitude, Skill.