How Medical Students Use the Computer and Internet at a Turkish Military Medical School

Military Medicine, Dec 2004 by Ogur, Recai, Kir, Tayfun, Kilic, Selim, Tekbas, Omer Faruk, Hasde, Metin

The aim of this study was to determine how medical students use the computer and World Wide Web at a Turkish military medical school and to discuss characteristics related to this computer use. The study was conducted in 2003 in the Department of Public Health at the Gulhane Military Medical School in Ankara, Turkey. A survey developed by the authors was distributed to 508 students, after pretest. Responses were analyzed statistically by using a computer. Most of the students (86.4%) could access a computer and the Internet and all of the computers that were used by students had Internet connections, and a small group (8.9%) had owned their own computers. One-half of the students use notes provided by attending stuff and textbooks as assistant resources for their studies. The most common usage of computers was connecting to the Internet (91.9%), and the most common use of the Internet was e-mail communication (81.6%). The most preferred site category for daily visit was newspaper sites (62.8%). Approximately 44.1% of students visited medical sites when they were surfing. Also, there was a negative correlation between school performance and the time spent for computer and Internet use (-0.056 and -0.034, respectively). It was observed that medical students used the computer and Internet essentially for nonmedical purposes. To encourage students to use the computer and Internet for medical purposes, tutors should use the computer and Internet during their teaching activities, and software companies should produce assistant applications for medical students. Also, medical schools should build interactive World Wide Web sites, e-mail groups, discussion boards, and study areas for medical students.

Introduction

The first use of computer technology in the field of medicine was the initiative in 1967 to determine the clinical proficiency of medical students.1 Although computer technologies are now widely used in medicine, the spread of its use started with the spread of personal computers. With the development of personal computers, people started to use computers in many fields. The main reason for their use becoming so widespread in our lives is that some computer software provides unprecedented facilities. The office applications greatly facilitated the preparation of printed materials such as documents and publications, and computers have irrevocably replaced typewriters. However, it is difficult to state that there exists computer software that has caused any major changes in the lives of medical doctors. Thus, the medical doctors generally use the computers for purposes and in manners similar to other users.2

The fact that the Internet, which was introduced by linking only four computers in the 1960s as a military project to enable military communications under nuclear warfare or similar circumstances, became easily accessible to masses in the last decade of the 20th century has significantly changed the nature of computer use. The Internet, which may be defined as a computer network of gigantic size, is growing, in some estimates 10% annually and becoming accessible to an increasingly larger number of users.3 The unique characteristics of the Internet world influenced the world of medicine and medical education. The Internet greatly facilitated the dissemination of classical and newly acquired medical knowledge and created a visual environment that allowed instant communications and cooperation.4 Today, medical doctors and students in many countries can access many medical materials and journals from their homes and academic institutions without having to go to libraries. Furthermore, the capability of the Internet to provide instant and multiway communications accelerates the worldwide production and development of knowledge.4 The multimedia applications such as animations and visual and audio presentations provide the medical doctors and students with a richness of educational materials that they would never be able to experience through classical methods.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, there are contradictions as to whether medical students deem it necessary to access the most recent medical developments and believe it is necessary to be aware of the latest developments to be good doctors. For example, approximately 250 million MEDLINE searches are done annually; however, one-third of all searches are conducted by ordinary people.5 Such data imply that studies should be conducted to investigate the purposes and tendencies of medical students and doctors to use computers and the Internet.

Thus, we studied the purposes of students enrolled in the school of medicine to use computers and the Internet and other characteristics that might be relevant to the issue.

Methods

A questionnaire form that consisted of 42 questions was prepared to capture the medical school students' computer and Internet use behavior, demographics, socioeconomic levels, and academic achievements. To encourage students to answer all questions freely, no question to identify the students was used in the questionnaire. To ensure the highest level of participation and avoid adverse impacts on students, the survey was administered while the students were not in course examination time or school break (in April 2003). The questionnaire was rearranged according to the pretest results and then the final form was administered to the students.