Information needs and information-seeking behavior of Egyptian nurses during a health crisis: A survey

Abstract

Since early 2020, nurses have been fighting on the frontlines to save people's lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has thrown nurses and other healthcare professionals into the public eye like never before. So, exploring their information needs during the battle will help to identify needs and improve preparedness when drawing up crisis plans. Thus, this paper investigates the information needs of nurses during the pandemic, how they met those needs, and the problems they encountered in seeking information. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 386 nurses in 52 Egyptian hospitals; 44% of nurses confirmed seeking information to increase their Knowledge in dealing with the pandemic, and about 76% of nurses were most likely to rely on internet websites such as those of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Egyptian Ministry of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in their search for medical information. Many nurses (48%) stated that “lack of time” was the biggest challenge they faced while searching for COVID-19 information. Although hospital libraries may have the opportunity to meet nurses’ information needs and improve their information-seeking behavior, our study has shown that 63.2% of nurses acknowledged that their hospitals do not have a library. Indeed, more research must be conducted in pandemics regarding information needs and resources.