Nursing Students' Attitudes Toward Technology: Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The growing presence of digital technologies in health care requires the health workforce to have proficiency in subjects such as informatics. This has implications in the education of nursing students, as their preparedness to use these technologies in clinical situations is something that course administrators need to consider. Thus, students' attitudes toward technology could be investigated to assess their needs regarding this proficiency. Objective: This study aims to investigate attitudes (enthusiasm and anxiety) toward technology among nursing students and to identify factors associated with those attitudes. Methods: Nursing students at 2 universities in Sweden and 1 university in Poland were invited to answer a questionnaire. Data about attitudes (anxiety and enthusiasm) toward technology, eHealth literacy, electronic device skills, and frequency of using electronic devices and sociodemographic data were collected. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the data. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient and Mann -Whitney U test were used for statistical inferences. Results: In total, 646 students answered the questionnaire-342 (52.9%) from the Swedish sites and 304 (47.1%) from the Polish site. It was observed that the students' technology enthusiasm (techEnthusiasm) was on the higher end of the Technophilia instrument (score range 1-5): 3.83 (SD 0.90), 3.62 (SD 0.94), and 4.04 (SD 0.78) for the whole sample, Swedish students, and Polish students, respectively. Technology anxiety (techAnxiety) was on the midrange of the Technophilia instrument: 2.48 (SD 0.96), 2.37 (SD 1), and 2.60 (SD 0.89) for the whole sample, Swedish students, and Polish students, respectively. Regarding techEnthusiasm among the nursing students, a negative correlation with age was found for the Swedish sample ( P <.001; rho (Swedish) =- 0 . 201 ) who were generally older than the Polish sample, and positive correlations with the eHealth Literacy Scale score ( P <.001; rho (all) =0.265; rho (Swedish) = 0 . 190 ; rho (Polish) = 0 . 352 ) and with the perceived skill in using computer devices ( P <.001; rho (all) =0.360; rho (Swedish) = 0 . 341 ; rho (Polish) =0.309) were found for the Swedish, Polish, and total samples. Regarding techAnxiety among the nursing students, a positive correlation with age was found in the Swedish sample ( P <.001; rho (Swedish) =0.184), and negative correlations with eHealth Literacy Scale score ( P <.001; rho (all) =-0.196; rho (Swedish) =- 0 . 262 ; rho (Polish) =- 0 . 133 ) and with the perceived skill in using computer devices ( P <.001; rho (all) =-0.209; rho (Swedish) =- 0 . 347 ; rho (Polish) =- 0 . 134 ) were found for the Swedish, Polish, and total samples and with the semester only for the Swedish sample ( P <.001; rho (Swedish) =-0.124). Gender differences were found regarding techAnxiety in the Swedish sample, with women exhibiting a higher mean score than men (2.451, SD 1.014 and 1.987, SD 0.854, respectively). Conclusions: This study highlights nursing students' techEnthusiasm and techAnxiety, emphasizing correlations with various factors. With health care's increasing reliance on technology, integrating health technology-related topics into education is crucial for future professionals to address health care challenges effectively.