Challenges of accessing and utilising health information for information needs satisfaction of female undergraduate students in colleges of medicine

Abstract

The study examined the challenges of accessing and utilizing health information for the information needs satisfaction of female undergraduate students in colleges of medicine. The study was guided by three research questions and one null hypothesis. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population of the study was 1,339 registered female undergraduate students of colleges of medicine. The sample size of the study was 549 female undergraduates’ students representing 41% of the population. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. Data gathered were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found out that, female undergraduate students understand that accessing and utilizing health information for meeting their information needs satisfaction has lots of benefits. However, challenges experienced in accessing and utilizing health information are: health information not packaged in an appealing/attracting format, lack of health counselors for students, negative attitudes of library staff members are a major problem and cultural or religious constraints, physical accessibility to the library building is a concern, lack of organize seminars/workshops on reproductive health, and epileptic power supply to access electronic health information, lack of ICT facilities to access health information, lack of current and up-to-date health information in the library. Some of the solutions to the problems include: the managements of the colleges of medicine should allocate more fund to the colleges of medicine library to acquire more health information resources for the female undergraduate students so that they can access and utilize them to meet their health information needs.