Abstract
Introduction: Health Information Technology refers to any electronic system involved in the delivery of health care. It includes any device or application used to collect, document or share health information (Higgins et al., 2017). The use of technology within the delivery of health care has dramatically increased over the past decade. Health information technology varies worldwide, with a vast range of the type, and number, of applications and devices utilised in practice. This study seeks to provide a uniquely New Zealand perspective on the issue of Health Information Technology as local research into this area is limited. Health information technology can improve patient outcomes by increasing efficiency, improving communication, documentation and streamlining services. The benefits of technology are, however, dependent on the attitudes of staff and their ability to effectively use these applications. This cross-sectional analysis explored the attitudes of a New Zealand mental health service's nursing staff towards information communication technology (ICT) and ICT devices, and the factors that contribute to these.
Method: The Revised Information Technology Attitude Scale for Health (RITASH), developed by Lee and Clarke (2015) was utilised via an online survey over a period of four weeks. The RITASH tool consists of 19 items relating to ICT and ICT devices and their use within the health care context. Invitations to participate in the study were distributed via the organisations internal emailing system with all eligible staff receiving information about the study and a link to the survey. Independent factors such as age, gender, years of experience, type of nursing registration and native language were considered as possible influences on attitudes towards technology. Attitudes across the four subscales of 'care value of ICT', 'training of ICT skills', 'ICT confidence', and 'workload value of ICT' were generally positive. Furthermore, overall attitudes towards technology were also generally positive.
Results: A number of statistically significant relationships were also identified. An inverse relationship between age and ICT confidence was found, with older nurses more likely to report lower levels of confidence than their younger colleagues. Enrolled nurses were more likely to report more positive attitudes towards the care value of ICT than their registered colleagues. Additionally, significant negative relationships were identified between years of experience and the subscales of care value and confidence. However, when age was accounted for these relationships were no longer significant.
Discussion: Based on the results presented by this study, recommendations were made with the intention of improving attitudes towards, and the use of, technology within the organisation. Key areas for improvement were related to the subscales of ICT confidence and the workload value of ICT as these were consistently rated the lowest among all variable groups. Interventions such as changes to skills training should focus on improving the ability of nurses to confidently and effectively implement new and existing technology into their practice.