DETERMINANTS OF MICROCOMPUTER TECHNOLOGY USE - IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF HEALTH STAFF

In hospitals and other Healthcare settings, increasingly, hands-on com puter use is becoming an important behaviour for effective job perform ance. The literature has identified differences that relate to compute r use between occupational categories in health services. The objectiv es of this study were to identify factors that determine computer acce ptance among occupational groups in Community Health and to predict th e factors that relate to computer use. A survey was administered to al l Community Health staff in one health service area. Health administra tors were found to have a significantly higher training in computers, a higher frequency of use and a higher level of skill for both applica tions (word processing (WP) and database (DB)) than nurses. The result s of a regression analysis shows that about 55% of the variation in th e use of WP is explained by computer skills, perceived usefulness (PU) and designation. In the case of DB use, PU was the only significant p redictor explaining 53% of the variation. Both level of education and prior training were not significant predictors. The implication for he alth informatics education (and service training) of these findings is that, in the workplace, health professionals would use computers when they perceive it to be useful for performance in their jobs. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.