Midwives' use of the Internet: an Australian study.

OBJECTIVE

to report findings on midwives' use of the Internet drawn from a larger study that explored midwives' attitudes and experiences to online and computer-based learning.

DESIGN AND SETTING

a descriptive, quantitative design using anonymous questionnaires was employed to obtain information from a sample of midwives in Victoria, Australia.

PARTICIPANTS

questionnaires were forwarded by mail to a sample of 300 members of the Victorian branch of the Australian College of Midwives. A total of 169 questionnaires were returned by reply paid mail, representing a response rate of 56%.

FINDINGS

around 92.3% of respondents reported that they used the Internet. However, 31.5% did not find navigating it to be easy, 34.7% reported that finding information was not easy, and 27.2% were not confident using the Internet.

KEY CONCLUSIONS

many midwives have insufficient Internet competence to be able to access necessary evidence to support practice and to assist women with decision making.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

ongoing education and training is needed to ensure that midwives have the skills to source evidence to support practice, and are able to effectively critique Internet information.