Profiling information behaviour of nursing students: part 1: quantitative findings

Abstract

Profiling information behaviour of nursing students: Part 1: quantitative findings. INTRODUCTIONHandling information is a key aspect of nursing care -from informal patient counselling through formal recording of care to reflection on practice, which increasingly requires appraisal of the research evidence. Library services have developed various information literacy initiatives for nursing students but many of these are based on assumptions of what this large group of students should do, not what they do, and why they do it. With a large student cohort of around 170,000 nursing students enrolled at higher education institutions in the UK in 2007/8 (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2009), a validated model of the information seeking behaviour (ISB) for this group would inform design and evaluation of information support services for this diverse student group, composed of mature students as well as school-leavers. Factors that affect the way nursing students search may be as important as being taught how to search. Personality, learning styles and self-efficacy may all have a role to play in the success or otherwise of student information seeking behaviour.This paper presents quantitative findings of a mixed-methods study on the development of information seeking profiles among nursing students, based on personality, self-efficacy and learning style. LITERATURE REVIEWMany conceptual models of ISB have been formulated including Wilson (1981), Ellis (1993), Wilson (1999), Ingwersen (1996, Kuhlthau (1993) and Saracevic (1996). Some of these models have been tested subsequently and each of these models focuses on a 'process' of information seeking which has a series of defined stages notably Ellis, Kuhlthau, although the more recent models do incorporate elements of 'looping' and 'feedback'. A lack of testing means it is unclear whether these models are over complicated and how closely related the different aspects of the models are. A more contemporary model formulated by Foster (2005), from grounded theory research with academics suggests that information seeking is substantially nonlinear, in the sense that there is not a series of steps or stages, rather those seeking information begin and end at different points depending partly on various cognitive factors. For the purpose of this article, information seeking behaviour is defined as what takes place when an individual (or group) identifies an information gap and purposefully tries to fill it; whilst information searching includes the physical acts of looking for information. Logically, studies of information seeking may include elements of searching as indicated in Wilson's (1999) nested model.From the data obtained from a longitudinal study of the use of electronic information services among academic staff and students in the UK, a model was derived of the mediating factors that influenced student use of electronic information services (in particular) (Urquhart and Rowley, 2007). This model embraced not just the factors associated with individuals but some ...

Attributes of digital natives as predictors of information literacy in higher education

“…Sociometric and demographic data were excluded from the predictions, even in the knowledge that they can contribute to differences in various aspects of ICT proficiency (eg, Bimber, 2000;Demirbilek, 2014;Mahmood, 2013;Haight, Quan-Haase, & Corbett, 2014). From the large array of personality factors affecting information literacy (Stokes & Urquhart, 2011), only Internet confidence, as one attribute of digital natives, Digital natives and information literacy 751 was used as a manifestation of self-efficacy (Chang et al, 2014;Eastin & LaRose, 2000;Papanastasiou & Angeli, 2008). The reasoning was similar to that in the case of sociometric and demographic factors: most personality traits can be recognised, but courses cannot be designed to take each trait into account, eg, adjusted to the students' level of openness or extraversion.…”

Profiling information behaviour of nursing students: part 2: derivation of profiles

“…Initial findings already reported (Stokes and Urquhart, 2011) hinted at the potential development of profiles. Additional statistical analysis was undertaken subsequently to attempt to firm up these relationships.…”

“…Initial analysis showed clear links between particular micro-processes with ILSE levels and different learning styles (Stokes and Urquhart, 2011). Intermediate ILSE students are linked to Monitoring and Identifying the Shape of Existing Research suggesting they would prefer (due to their lack of confidence) to stick with what they already know rather than look for additional information; and need to confirm that what they have got is worthwhile.…”

“…Part I of the paper (Stokes and Urquhart, 2011) discussed the quantitative findings of a mixed-methods doctoral research study on the development of information seeking profiles among nursing students, based on personality, self-efficacy and learning style. The quantitative element of the study used a questionnaire (sample n=194) consisting of three validated scales for personality (Saucier, 1994), learning styles (Entwistle, 1997), and self-efficacy with information literacy (Kurbanoglu et al, 2006), a section on information seeking preferences based on Foster's (2004) model, as well as some demographic questions.…”

Spanning information behaviour across the stages of a learning task

“…This may result in a low self-efficacy and define their further behaviour (cf. Stokes and Urquhart, 2011). A surface approach to studying has been linked to avoidance coping, that is disengagement from the source of stress (Moneta et al, 2007).…”