A Survey on Information Seeking Behaviour of Nurses at a Private Hospital in Greece

The paper deals with the investigation of the information seeking behavior of nursing staff of a private hospital in Greece. It is assumed that the information seeking behaviour has an effect on the nursing care and practices. A survey was conducted through a specially designed questionnaire distributed within 2013 to registered nurses of a major private Hospital in Athens. Nonparametric descriptive statistics have been carried out through SPSS version 20. The information needs of nurses are related to their work role and include information for nursing interventions and hospital infections control. The online scientific content is considered as the main source of information, while lack of time is considered as the main obstacle when seeking information. Regarding the effects of information, nurses believe that information quality and availability influences nursing care as well as nursing practices. Development of appropriate information services and information literacy skills for nurses is required.