Information Needs and Seeking Behaviour of Nurses at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the information needs and seeking behaviour of nurses at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria’s first and largest teaching hospital. Using a  questionnaire, data were collected from 240 nurses selected randomly from a population of 1,046. The questionnaire assessed the types of information needed by the nurses, how they met these needs, and the perceived relevance, availability and accessibility of the information sources. Almost all the nurses (94.0%) searched for information in order to improve their knowledge, while only 28.5% reported searching for information for patient care purposes. Colleagues topped the list of information sources most regularly used (88.1%), although only 59.3% reported finding the source adequate. The nurses reported lack of access as a major inhibitor of their use of the sources, and suggested that establishing information centres/libraries and enhancing their computer literacy skills would ameliorate their information-seeking problems. The study recommends that the hospital management should liaise with the library of the adjacent College of Medicine of the University of Ibadan to design appropriate information literacy and information and communication technology training programmes to improve the nurses’ information seeking behaviour and use.