Availability and Utilization of Digital Health Technology for Improved Patient Care: A Cross-Sectional Study of Nurses’ Perspectives at a State General Hospital in North-Central Nigeria
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Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDOL), National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and Commonwealth of Learning: West African Journal of Open and Flexible Learning
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Abstract
Digital health technology (DHT), the application and implementation of the digital transformation strategy in the healthcare system, entails incorporating both software and hardware services to facilitate different health needs. In Nigeria's healthcare system, the utilization of digital health technology has not been fully explored resulting in the lagging behind the delivery of healthcare for digitalized, improved patient care, and nursing practice. This research study was designed to assess knowledge, availability and utilization of digital health technology by nurses at a North-Central Hospital, in Kwara state. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted. The researcher used a Self-developed administered questionnaire to elicit responses from a convenient sample of 125 nurses. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics (with a 0.05 level of significance). The study revealed that the majority of the nurses had good knowledge (n= 92; 73.6%) and positive perception (n=90; 72%) about digital health technology with fair adequate utilization (n=74; 59.2%) of the few
available digital health technology devices. A significant association was found between the knowledge of nurses about digital health technology and their highest academic qualification with a p-value of 0.022, which is less than a 0.05 level of significance. Also, a significant association was found between the knowledge of nurses and the utilisation of digital health technology with a P value of 0.005. In conclusion, digital health technology knowledge among nurses was good and positive respectively and the level of utilization of digital health technology was adequate. Therefore, hospital administration and nurses need to advocate for improved provision of adequate digital health technologies for health care and practices especially for nursing care. Hospital administration should continue to improve the knowledge of the health workers and continually enhance digital health technology utilisation for improved patient care.
Description
This study reported the level of knowledge, availability, and utilization of digital health technology by nurses at a General Hospital, in Ilorin, Kwara state. Results showed a good level of knowledge and a strong positive perception to use of digital health technology for patient care but the needed inputs are essentially unavailable. While nurses as advocates of excellent practice should impress on the Hospital administration to make provisions for the supply of DHT, the Hospital administration and Ministries of Health should continue to continue education on DHT of the health workers while making deliberate efforts to acquire the needed facilities and equipment
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Olubiyi, S.K., Anyebe, E.E., Akinsunlola, O.T., Okesina, K.B., Omoniyi, S.O., Adeola, R. (2022). Availability and Utilization of Digital Health Technology for Improved Patient Care: A Cross-Sectional Study of Nurses’ Perspectives at a State General Hospital in North-Central Nigeria. West African Journal of Open and Flexible Learning; 11 (1), 35-56 ; Published by Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDOL), National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and Commonwealth of Learning. https://wajofel.org/index.php/wajofel/issue/view/11