Abstract:
Background: Nurses need to have skills in finding, understanding and applying health
information available online platforms into their practice. The development of these skills
among nursing students is an essential component of nursing education.
Objective: To examine the use of internet and eHealth literacy skills among nursing students
in a selected Government School of Nursing, Sri Lanka to plan interventions to improve their
competency in eHealth literacy
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a purposive sample of nursing
students (n = 440) from a conveniently selected Government School of Nursing, Sri Lanka. A
pre-tested self-administered questionnaire, consisting of demographic information, use of
internet and eHealth literacy skills was used. eHealth literacy skills were assessed by eHealth
literacy Scale (Norman and Skinner, 2006). In statistical analysis, descriptive statistics, the
Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used.
Results: The sample consisted of 95.5% (420) females and 4.5% (20) males, and the age range
was 21 to 30 years. The 47% reported good self-rated internet use skills. The primary device
used to access the internet was smart phones (97.3%). Internet was mainly used for study
purposes (99.1%), and these included doing assignments (92%), improving health-related
knowledge (72.7%) and preparing for examinations (39.2%). The majority perceived that the
internet was useful in health decision making (68%) and important in accessing health
resources (72%). The mean eHealth literacy score was 28.02 (SD ± 4.60), and 51.6% reported
adequate eHealth literacy skills. The factors associated with eHealth literacy were self-rated
internet use skills (p = 0.005), perception on use of internet in health decision making (p =
0.009) and accessing health information (p = 0.001).
Conclusions: Internet is popular among nursing students, particularly for educational
purposes. Students held positive perception towards the use of internet in accessing health
information and health decision making. Half of the nursing students have adequate eHealth
literacy skills. There was a positive association between perception towards and good skills in
internet use with eHealth Literacy skills. Internet-based educational strategies can be integrated
into nursing education.
