Master of Arts (Instructional Design & Technology)

The way healthcare operates has changed with the introduction of Information Technology (IT). Similarly, the changes brought by IT into the healthcare, the way nursing is practiced is also affected. So in order to equip the nurses' with the relevant IT skills to meet the new challenges of nursing practice, Nanyang Polytechnic, the only school in Singapore to offer a Diploma in Nursing, needs to review the nursing IT curriculum.

A needs assessment is a necessary step to determine the problems before appropriate solutions can be adopted. This dissertation focused on determining the performance discrepancies between the student nurses' actual IT ability and what the industry expects them to able to do. Knowing the problem areas is the first step to solving the performance gaps.

One particular needs assessment framework by Rossett's (1987) was chosen, as it was most appropriate to my study. However, instead of using all five of Rossett's categories of Optimals, Actuals, Feelings, Causes and Solutions, my study concentrated only on finding the Optimals, Actuals and Feelings. This study did not attempt to determine the causes of the problems but identifying the performance gaps of the industry expectations and student nurses' actual IT skills level. Using Saranto and Leino-Kilpi (1997a) instruments with major modifications were adopted to determine the performance gaps.

The industry experts of different sources represented the sample to provide data on the optimal IT skills nurses should have. This team was made up of six nursing officers from different hospitals in Singapore, two nursing lecturers from Nanyang Polytechnic and a representative from Singapore Nursing Association. To assess the actual levels of IT use by nursing students, the student nurses sample of 372 was made up of 156 advanced diploma students and 216 diploma students.

The findings indicated that there are four performance gaps between what the industry expects and what the student nurse were able to do. The four gaps were as followed:

1. Advanced diploma students lacked basic IT skills
2. Advanced diploma students lacked understanding of work-related IT systems
3. Diploma students lacked understanding of work-related IT systems
4. Diploma students lacked understanding of theoretical concepts.

For each of the performance gaps, some suggested solutions were proposed. These suggestions were strictly based on observations. More comprehensive and thorough solutions would require a separate detail study. Finally, the findings here were compared to a developed nation to gauge Singapore nurses' IT status.

The result of this study would enable the educators to review the current curriculum and to further explore the possible solutions. These findings may assist the educators to implement a more relevant syllabus for the training of healthcare providers.