Computer literacy among medical, nursing, dental and veterinary undergraduates

Abstract

Universities need to ensure that clinical undergraduates are educated in the use of computers in medical, nursing, dental and veterinary practice. We surveyed 875 students at Glasgow University to determine their computer literacy and attitudes to the use of computers. One in five students had not used a computer during the last year and 16% thought themselves to be a complete novice with computers. Medical students were more likely to have used a computer recently compared to dental and nursing students. For one in four students, the idea of working with a computer makes them anxious. Seventy per cent of students wanted more use of computers in the curriculum and 30% applied to attend an optional computing course in the summer. Although a third of students had not used a computer at school, the proportion had increased a little in recent years. At Glasgow University, changes need to be made to the undergraduate curriculum to teach students the use of computers in clinical practice. With a few exceptions, there is no reason to believe that this does not apply to other British universities.

Trends in Students' Knowledge, Opinions, and Experience Regarding Dental Informatics and Computer Applications

“…A five-point scale ranging from no experience to extensive experience was used. Four subscores were developed: hardware (range [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], software (range 7-35), information access and retrieval (range [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and dental applications (range 13-65). A total experience score (range 28-140) was constructed by summing all experiential items.…”

“…6 One-third of the students reported not having used a computer in the preceding year. About two-thirds of these students wanted more use of computers in the curriculum.…”

Knowledge and attitude about computer and internet usage among dental students in Western Rajasthan, India

“…[49101112] Only 5.6% have stated that lack of time is reason for computer illiteracy. It has been observed that, 77.4% students had their own computer and access at home, 18.2% at hostel and only 4.1% goes to cyber café, these results were in accordance to Europe (72%), Jordan (74%), Pakistan (73%), Saudi Arabian (82.74%) and Spain study (76.8%), where students had accessed computers at home.…”

Information technology in dental education

“…48 Nevertheless, the need to teach basic computer literacy is increasing. [49][50][51] It has been suggested that specific information on IT should be incorporated into undergraduate curricula, 52 and a course on IT is now recommended for new undergraduates by many universities, including the University of Hong Kong.…”