Nurses attitudes towards the informed patient

The widespread use of the Internet for health information has resulted in knowledgeable clients referred to as "informed patients". Many patients bring the information they downloaded from the Internet to the appointments with the health care workers. Objectives: The present study examined the prevalence of nurses' encounters and attitudes to these patients and factors that might influence attitudes. Method: A cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of 110 nurses in Israel was conducted. The main variables measured were: attitudes, professional self-esteem, and two indices of Internet use. Results: The results show that most nurses held positive attitudes towards patients presenting Internet Medical Information. Nurses with prior experience had more positive attitudes than nurses with no such experience. Professional self-esteem and Internet use were also positively correlated to positive attitudes to these patients. Conclusions: Since patients search the Internet for medical information, there is a need to prepare and train nurses to be Internet literate in order to be prepared for encounters with such patients.