Information Literacy of Nurses in Shaanxi Province, China: A Cross-sectional Descriptive and Multicentre Survey

Abstract Background: With the advent of the information age, rapid progress has been made in Chinese medical and health services. As the main force to give thorough, systematic and integral services for patients, nurses play an important role in the development of information-based medical care. However, there is a lack of research on the information literacy of nurses in the hospitals of different levels in China.Methods: We selected 30 hospitals in Shaanxi Province by convenient sampling method and distributed 3,480 questionnaires from March to July 2020. The self-reported questionnaire included general information of nurses and their information literacy scale which was filled in the form of anonymity on the Internet. We then performed descriptive analyses, univariate analysis and multiple linear regression analysis on the collected data.Results: We obtained 3,011 valid questionnaires, with the response rate of 94.71% (n=3,296). The total score of information literacy of 3,011 nurses was 114.18 ± 18.62, including 115.39 ± 17.66 for tertiary hospital nurses, 114.65 ± 19.02 for secondary hospital nurses and 105.00 ± 18.68 for primary hospital nurses (F=33.755, P=0.000). The nurses who were in primary hospital, with low education background or at older age, could not use database, had not participated in information literacy training, spent less spare time on learning, read less literature, had lower information literacy level (F＝39.687, P＝0.000). Conclusions: There are differences in nurses' information literacy among hospitals of different levels and several factors are associated with the information literacy. Since the information literacy of nurses in primary hospitals is the lowest, we should pay special attention to improving their information literacy, in particular. The government should strengthen information support and organize information literacy training. The hospitals should offer courses, lectures, seminars to improve the information literacy of nurses. Nurses should improve their information skills, read the latest professional literature, and constantly improve themselves.