E-Readiness Assessment of Teaching Hospitals Affiliated to Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences for E-Learning Implementation for Nurses’ In-Service Training

Introduction: To get updated, nurses need to attend in-service training courses. E-learning is a promising solution for providing courses to busy nurses in teaching hospitals. This study aims to evaluate the readiness of teaching hospitals for e-learning implementation specialized for nurses' in-service trainings. Methods: This descriptive-analytical survey was carried out in Bandar Abbas (Iran) teaching hospitals affiliated to Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (HUMS) from March to June 2016. It included nursing staff, trainers, and related hospital and HUMS authorities. Questionnaires and checklists adopted from earlier studies and customized for this study were used for data collection. Appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical formulas were applied using SPSS version 19. Results: Data showed that HUMS; in general, was in an optimum situation for e-learning implementation regarding manpower, financial support, technical equipment, strategic plan, content authoring and access to the internet. However, access to information resources and digital library was not good. Hospital authorities stated that they had lack of manpower and required infrastructure. Some of them doubted the appropriateness of e-learning for clinical trainings. Apart from knowledge dimension, nurses reported significantly higher than the average on other study dimensions. Conclusion: To implement e-learning for nurses' in-service trainings, HUMS must hire experts for authoring and producing content; and technical staff for maintenance the infrastructure. Moreover, e-learning knowledge and skills of people involved in e-learning needs to be improved.