Abstract:

The increasing use of Technology within UK healthcare has fundamentally altered the ways in which patient care is delivered and Information, Communication and Technology( ICT) has become a core part of nursing care. This raises issues for some students who are underconfident in their use of technology. Research indicates that there are greater barriers to participation with ICT amongst mature, female nursing students and that this lack of confidence affects different aspects of their practice experience which go beyond use of ICT.

It is acknowledged that this lack of confidence and competence can have an impact on their professional development. This research studied the way in which a group of mature, female nurses utilised ICT and was based within a pre-registration programme in a UK School of Health. The programme includes a substantial element of work based learning within the associated NHS Trust.

This qualitative study used interviews and observation to explore the biographical, university and clinical placement use of ICT of the study sample.

The study addressed three main questions :
1) How are mature, female nursing students accessing and using ICT within nursing education?
2) What are the barriers that may prevent mature, female students from accessing and using ICT within nursing education?
3) What actions do mature, female nursing students consider may be taken to improve their knowledge and subsequent use of ICT in both their academic studies and clinical placement work?

The findings demonstrated the importance of biographical history, personal experience of ICT, support on the programme in university and on placement. The study demonstrated how these students felt ‘locked out’ generationally, hierarchically and emotionally in relation to ICT. It also demonstrated how being physically ‘locked out’ impacted other areas of their placement experience. Participants described how this experience affected their ability to engage with the Community of Practice constituted by the ward team and in particular how they remained on the periphery of the community rather than moving to the centre as Lave and Wenger ( 1991) describe. The cultural impact of being ‘locked out ‘ in one area resulted in them feeling blocked from participation on other areas, proving detrimental to their clinical experience. The findings pose a challenge for the way in which government policy is being enacted for specific groups of nurses; and how a deficit in one area has multiple unforeseen impacts on student experience. It raises the issue of how to ensure that these groups of learners are both physically logged in and fully included in the culture and community of the teams in which they operate and seek to ‘ belong.’

Keywords:

Information, technology, communities of practice, nursing, barriers to education, student nurses.