What is it about?
Lesotho is having challenges implementing information systems to it's healthcare system, including computerisation of health records in hospitals. Improving computer literacy of nurses, who by far constitute the largest proportion of the healthcare workforce, is central to realising this goal. The study assessed the levels of computer literacy for nurses in Lesotho, the factors that influence their literacy levels and determined the most challenging computer skills. Findings revealed that the majority of the nurses had inadequate computer skills. The skills most challenging to them ranged from basic to medium level skills. Older nurses, particularly females, had the most challenges, and this was associated with poor exposure to computers in their lives and during professional training. These findings suggest that implimenting health information systems in the current scenario is therefore difficult. Scaling up computer education in the nurse training schools is certainly the way to go, while short courses tailored for nurses are needed for those already in practice.
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Why is it important?
This study identified the most critical computer skills lacking among nurses in Lesotho, setting the stage for improvement of nurses training cariculum in the country.
Perspectives
Lesotho has in recent years scaled up the training of nurses, who are a critical human resource for its healthcare system. However, more support is needed to improve computer skills of the nurses being trained in the country to fully equip the nurses with the skills they need to implement health information systems.
Dr Eltony Mugomeri
Africa University
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This page is a summary of: Assessment of Computer Literacy of Nurses in Lesotho, CIN Computers Informatics Nursing, November 2016, Wolters Kluwer Health,
DOI: 10.1097/cin.0000000000000269.
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