A Comparative Study to Assess an Attitude towards Computer Application in Nursing Practice among the Staff Nurses

Nursing is professional caring. Though we are in technology world many of the Hospital follows the most of the traditional method of nursing care which has got lot of paper work than the client care. This trend has to be changed. Hence this study is focusing on assessment and comparison of Nurses attitude towards computer application in nursing practice by a standardized tool P.A.T.C.H (Pretest for Attitudes Toward Computers in Healthcare). Quantitative approach with descriptive research design was used for the study. Staff Nurses working in Private Hospital and Government Hospital were selected by using convenient sampling technique. Total sample size is forty. Prochaska Diclemente's Stage of Change Model theory was applied for the present study. Both descriptive and inferential technique was used for the study. Study findings shows, according to P.A.T.C.H. Scale Private Staff Nurses had 5% of the limited awareness, 40% of them had realistic view, 50% of them had enthusiastic view and 5% of them had idealistic view about computer application in nursing practice. Government Staff Nurses had 35% realistic view, 55% of them had enthusiastic view and 10% of them had idealistic view. Among the Private staff Nurses 59% of them had positive attitude, 20% of them had negative attitude and 21% of them were expressed that no opinion. Among the Government Staff Nurses 59.5% of them had positive attitude, 15% of them were had negative attitude and 25.5% of them were expressed as no opinion. Chi square test was used to find out the association between attitude and selected demographic variables at 0.05 level of significance. It shows that there is no association between attitude and age, sex, education, Year of experience, Income, Type of family, religion, marital status and Place of residence. There is association between attitude and Source of information. Overall finding of the study shows that there is no much difference between private and government staff nurses towards computer application in nursing practice. They must be educated regarding current trends and recent advancement by using information technology.