Demographic and occupational characteristics of healthcare professionals and the utilization of information sources about COVID-19

OBJECTIVE The study of the information-seeking behavior of the medical and nursing personnel of the "Papageorgiou" General Hospital of Thessaloniki during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the differentiation of these studied demographic characteristics. METHOD The research was carried out from March to April 2021, while the research sample consisted of 232/300 doctors and nurses (response rate: 77.3%) of the hospital staff. Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire designed to investigate participants' opinions regarding the use of the Internet and to assess sample's information-seeking behavior, specifically regarding the sources they use to search for information. All tests performed were two-sided and statistical significance was set at the level of 0.05. RESULTSThe major-ity of the sample often or very often used, as information sources, electronic journals and scientific databases (e.g., PubMed, Medline), Internet engines (e.g., Google), protocols (guidelines) from medical companies, their peers, and World Health Organization (WHO) websites. Instead, the majority rarely or not at all used other sources, such as the hospital library, family members, social and mass media outlets (e.g., Facebook, Twitter). At the same time, participants with access to computers used the Internet significantly more often, while participants who used the Internet more often tended to search more for information about COVID-19, as well as information from medical libraries and other similar sources. Also, participants who most frequently sought information from medical libraries sought statistically significantly more often information from non-medical sources as well. In addition, nurses used the inter -net less and sought information from medical libraries and other similar sources less often than doctors, while par-ticipants who have completed at least their postgraduate studies used the internet significantly more and sought information more often from medical libraries and other similar sources. Finally, participants with at least 11 years of work experience more often sought information from non-medical sources, compared to participants with less work experience. CONCLUSIONSThe continuous update and information of the medical and nursing personnel comprise important factors in improving the level of provision of healthcare services. Further investigation of the information sources deployed could support healthcare professionals in better managing their knowledge, while creating a safe information seeking environment.