Nursing Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Nursing, including details on health care, hospital staff, professional care. | ||||||||
|
Attitudes toward Web-based distance learning among public health nurses in Taiwan: a questionnaire survey.Yu S, Yang KF Institute of Health Policy and Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. yushu@ym.edu.tw BACKGROUND: Public health nurses (PHNs) often cannot receive in-service education due to limitations of time and space. Learning through the Internet has been a widely used technique in many professional and clinical nursing fields. The learner's attitude is the most important indicator that promotes learning. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate PHNs' attitude toward web-based learning and its determinants. DESIGN: This study conducted a cross-sectional research design. SETTINGS: 369 health centers in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: The population involved this study was 2398 PHNs, and we used random sampling from this population. Finally, 329 PHNs completed the questionnaire, with a response rate of 84.0%. METHODS: Data were collected by mailing the questionnaire. RESULTS: Most PHNs revealed a positive attitude toward web-based learning (mean+/-SD=55.02+/-6.39). PHNs who worked at village health centers, a service population less than 10,000, PHNs who had access to computer facility and on-line hardware in health centers and with better computer competence revealed more positive attitudes (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Web-based learning is an important new way of in-service education; however, its success and hindering factors require further investigation. Individual computer competence is the main target for improvement, and educators should also consider how to establish a user-friendly learning environment on the Internet. Published 10 July 2006 in Int J Nurs Stud, 43(6): 767-74.
© 2005-2008 Nursing Research Today. All Rights Reserved. |
| ||||||
