The Royal College of Nursing has released the results of a survey showing that nurses need better access to research in order to give better care. From the press release (July 22, 2005):
Patients may not be getting the best care possible because nurses have limited access to the latest research and information in their workplaces, according to research from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The survey of nurses’ information needs showed that nurses who have the time and easy access to health information at work are more likely to use their research to improve the care they give to patients. Over 1700 nurses responded to the RCN survey, making it one of the largest reviews of nurses’ information needs undertaken in the UK. Over one third of the respondents had limited access to the Internet for research whilst at work, and almost one in five said they never had access to the Internet at work when they needed it. In the independent sector this rose to nearly half who never had access to the Internet for research in the workplace when they needed it, with 38% saying they had no computer access at work at all. Due to workload and time constraints getting to a local health library for research during work time was difficult for two out of ten of nurses in NHS hospitals, increasing to 7 out of ten in the independent sector. Within the NHS community setting one third of respondents had difficulty getting to a local health library....When asked about improvements they would like to see in the information services they used, nine out of ten said they would like to get more access to a wider range of full text articles in journals.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/10/2005 12:17:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
