Expanding the information literacy skills of practicing health care professionals: oncology nurses a

1
Expanding the information literacy skills of
practicing health care professionals oncology
nurses as example

• Prof Ina Fourie
• Mrs. Retha Claasen-Veldsman
• Department of Information Science
• University of Pretoria

2
Introduction

• Society is marked by changes in
• Access to information
• WWW current awareness services (CAS)
• ICT skills required
• Information literacy skills required
• Changes affect patients and health care
  professionals such as doctors, nurses
• Oncology nurses as example
• Seeming urgency for information versus practical
  realities

3
Introduction (cont.)

• Pressures and demands faced by oncology nurses
• Throughout Europe cancer nurses are striving to
  meet the challenges of providing quality nursing
  care amid changing environments that are
  characterized by advances in drugs and
  technologies, ageing populations, increasing
  rates of cancer, increased survival rates, rising
  costs and increasing economic constraints
• (Baker Fitch as cited by Browne, Robinson
  Richardson, 2002134)
• Are other health care professionals facing
  similar changes and what can we do about it?
  (cont.)

4
Scope of this paper

• Environment of health care professionals
• Generalisation from the subject literature
• Oncology nurses oncology health care
  professionals
• World Wide Web and CAS
• Oncology nursing resources
• Some realities faced by oncology health care
  professionals
• Limited survey to offer South African perspective
• Oncology clinic
• Oncology hospital wards (cont.)

5
Scope of this paper (cont.)

• Developing a culture of keeping up in a dynamic
  field
• Workshop as point of departure
• Acknowledging the nature and demands of their
  jobs
• Link to daily tasks and motivational factors
• Building a cognitive framework
• Acknowledging the affective component of
  information seeking
• Linking to everyday life needs
• Exploring WWW CAS for issues of motivation
• Further plans
• Conclusion

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Environment of health care professionals some
generalisations

• Evidence-based practices
• Health informatics
• Life-long learning
• Increased use of ICT in health environments
• Diversity in information and ICT resources and
  information and ICT skills
• What is happening with information literacy
  programmes? (cont.)

7
Environment of health care professionals some
generalisations (cont.)

• Oncology (cancer) nurses as example
• Patient education and support
• Changes in health care environment
• Ageing population
• Increase in cancer patients
• ICT developments
• Growing demands for improved health care services
• New roles
• Need to keep up with solutions reported in
  professional literature

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World Wide Web (WWW) and Current
Awareness Services (CAS)

• CAS, alerting services, information monitoring
• Concepts not new
• Expanded accessibility available for free
• What would be the reasons for not using CAS?
• Link to information skills and information
  seeking behaviour
• Require a change of mindset
• Link to demands of environment
• Putting information to use (cont.)

9
World Wide Web (WWW) and Current Awareness
Services (CAS)

• Oncology nursing CAS resources available via the
  WWW
• Professional associations
• Professional journals
• Tables of contents
• Tables of contents services
• RSS feeds
• Electronic newsletters
• Book alerting services
• Discussion groups
• Websites with noteworthy content
• Monitoring software
• Portals

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Some realities faced by oncology health care
professionals

• Limited survey to offer South African perspective
• Oncology clinic (6 people involved in survey)
• Two oncology wards at the same hospital (19
  people involved in survey)
• Ward focusing on chemotherapy, stem cell
  transplants
• Ward focusing on palliative care and children
• Participants oncologist, nurses (different
  levels), social worker, hospital care workers
• Questionnaire
• Individual limited group interviews (need to
  deal with realities)
• Individual detailed interviews with management
• Head oncologist
• Unit manager of hospital wards (cont.)

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Some realities faced by oncology health care
professionals (cont.)

• Our purpose with the limited survey
• Adapting our strategies for data collection
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Participants
• Using a workshop to make a difference
  preparation required
• Expanding our research for the future
• Other members from the support team
• Pharmacists, dieticians, physiotherapists, social
  workers and eventually other health care
  professionals
• Patients
• Patient support groups (family, friends, etc.)

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Selected findings

• Impact of the environmental system
• Clinic vs hospital wards
• Differences between hospital wards
• Working with the same patients, but in very
  different contexts
• Oncologist vs hospital management
• Infrastructure and funding
• Awareness of information needs and information
  resources available
• Information literacy skills
• ICT skills (cont.)

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Selected findings (cont.)

• Daily tasks
• Demanding job environment
• Long working hours
• Extreme tiredness fatigue
• Emotionally drained
• Not enough time and energy
• Need to balance with personal life (cont.)

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Selected findings (cont.)

• Information literacy and ICT skills
• Ability to use information
• No formal training in searching for information
• Mostly confident that they know how to use
  information
• Very limited skills in using computers, email,
  Internet
• Limited Internet access from hospital
• More Internet facilities at oncology clinic, but
  limited opportunity for use
• Very few participants had personal computers and
  Internet access

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Developing a culture of keeping up in a dynamic
field

• Exploring the subject literature
• Oncology nursing
• Library and Information Science
• Exploring and stimulating interest in CAS
• Acknowledging the nature and demands of their
  jobs
• Need to find ways to face the realities of
  professional life
• Need to find ways to explore what CAS may offer
• Workshop as point of departure (cont.)

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Point of departure for workshop understanding
yourself
Me who I am
i
My personal life
My job work place
Oncology profession
Society
17
Point of departure for workshop positioning
yourself
Me who I am
i
My personal life
My job work place
Oncology profession
Society
18
Developing a culture of keeping up in a dynamic
field (cont.)

• Workshop
• Limited time available for attendance
• Purpose
• Scope and handouts
• Goodwill and interest
• Learning from participants
• Planning for more intensive information literacy
  and CAS programmes (cont.)

19
Developing a culture of keeping up in a dynamic
field (cont.)

• Link to daily tasks and motivational factors
• How they experience their professional roles
• Potential motivational factors
• Linking to cancer patients and their support
  structures
• Exploring research on information needs and
  information seeking behaviour
• Interest and motivation flowing from personal
  lives
• Need for further exploration / considering
  theories such as flow theory

20
Developing a culture of keeping up in a dynamic
field (cont.)

• Building a cognitive framework
• Need to start with interest and hands-on
• IT and Internet skills
• Search skills
• Skills in using email (essential for WWW CAS)
• Understanding the information infrastructure
• Available for free vs subscription
• When can they justify subscription?
• Exploring the value and use of information
• They need to see the value (know yourself
  positioning yourself)
• Understanding the dissemination of information

21
Developing a culture of keeping up in a dynamic
field (cont.)

• Affective component of information seeking
• Uncertainty
• Frustrations
• Expectations
• Excitement
• Need to explore link between affective and
  cognitive aspects

22
Developing a culture of keeping up in a dynamic
field (cont.)

• Linking to everyday life needs
• Children
• Impressing
• Homework assignments
• E-commerce
• Online banking
• Online shopping
• Keeping up with current events
• Daily news
• Travel and holiday planning
• Accommodation, maps
• Flight bookings, comparison of prices
• Personal
• Jokes, thought for the day, horoscope

23
Developing a culture of keeping up in a dynamic
field (cont.)

• Exploring motivation for using WWW CAS and
  information sources
• Interest in softer issues (e.g. supporting
  emotional well-being of patients)
• Excitement in exploring a new world
• Offering something special for children
• Job opportunities, etc.

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What now?
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Further plans

• Workshop to stimulate interest
• Trial (2 hours limited opportunity for
  hands-on)
• Need to start with
• Basic computer skills
• Internet search skills
• Linked to needs of oncology nurses and everyday
  life needs
• Self-paced workbook required
• Website or portal
• Explicit linking to benefits of using CAS (cont.)

26
Further plans (cont.)

• Further research on the needs of cancer patients
• Children
• South African context
• Research on the information behaviour of
• Social workers in oncology
• Pharmacists in oncology
• Dieticians
• Link to resources and methods used by oncologists
• Apply to other health professional contexts
• Research in different groups

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Conclusion

• There is a need for improvement of information
  literacy skills
• Linked to CAS
• Use of information
• Extensive research required to deepen our
  understanding of the information needs and
  information behaviour of the target group
• Stimulate interest in the use of CAS and other
  information resources offered via the WWW