Development and effects of a nursing information literacy competency education program for undergraduate nursing students

Abstract

Purpose: This study was conducted to develop and test the effects of a nursing information literacy competency education program for undergraduate nursing students. Methods: A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The subjects consisted of 42 sophomore undergraduate nursing students who had completed a fundamental nursing course (experimental group: n=21, control group n=21). The nursing information literacy competency education program consisted of 8 steps in 8 sessions, taught over 4 weeks, which was 20 hours in total. Data were collected between January 23 and March 14, 2019 and were analyzed using Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, t-test, paired t-test, and repeated measure ANOVA with SPSS/WIN 23.0. Results: Significant differences were shown between the experimental and control groups regarding nursing information literacy competency (F=91.74, p<.001), problem-solving ability (F=52.43, p<.001), self-directed learning ability (F=36.61, p<.001), and evidence-based practice competency (F=59.66, p<.001). Conclusion: The nursing information literacy competency education program was effective in improving the nursing information literacy competency, problem-solving ability, self-directed learning ability, and evidence-based practice competency of nursing students. Hence, we recommend the nursing information literacy education program will be included as an independent course in the nursing curriculum for undergraduate nursing students to promote a needed proficiency in nursing information literacy competency.