Bawden, D. and Robinson, K. (1997). Information behaviour in nursing specialties: A case study of midwifery. Journal of Information Science, 23(6), 407-21

Abstract

            The objective of this article was to better understand information seeking behaviors of nurses specializing in midwifery and psychiatry nursing. The study was conducted in United Kingdom as semi-structured interviews among midwifery nurses, psychiatric nurses, and librarians. There were 50 wives and 16 psychiatric nurses interviewed. The study noted that nurses in general do not engage in professional reading. This lack of professional reading may be due to limited libraries carrying resources and references regarding nursing specific topics. Compared to the general nursing population the midwives stated in their interview that they read at least two journals related to their specialty. The midwives were also knowledgeable about the Midwives Information and Resource Services database (MIDIRS) and used it as a resource in retrieving clinical information. Most midwifes, who were interviewed had access to a computer, and used it to access information. The two types of information midwives searched for were categorized as ‘recent research’ and ‘hot topics’ such as ‘water births.’ The psychiatric nurses were aware of nursing journals, but were not likely to seek information about their field of work compared to midwives. In fact, 5 out of the 16 psychiatric nurses did not read anything with any regularity related to their work. The librarians, who were labeled as ‘information’ providers, by the author did not recognize that specialized nursing required customized services related to the type of information  these nurse needed. Most librarians interviewed did not see any improvements in the near future with databases or systems containing nursing relevant data due to budget constraints.