Exploring the information practices of cannabis nurses

As the therapeutic use of cannabis increases, Americans are turning to nurses as sources of information about the safe and effective therapeutic use of cannabis. This study uses qualitative methods to explore how 31 highly educated and experienced American nurses used information practices to connect and interact with sources of cannabis information. By answering the question “What are information practices of cannabis nurses?,” the study addresses an unexplored gap in the research conversation among information scientists, nurse educators, and medicinal cannabis researchers. The aim of this study is to better understand cognitive authority and to examine how these nurses used information practices to learn how to be cannabis nurses. The study design used the McKenzie Information Practices Model (MIP) for data collection and analysis. The MIP model helped produce a rich description of the information practices of cannabis nurses. Findings show that cannabis nurses are using their information practices to locate cognitive authorities—that is, sources of secondhand knowledge whose facts and data about cannabis the nurses believed to be true. Findings also indicate that the nurses’ information practices create serendipitous social situations where they could reveal themselves as possible cognitive authorities for other cannabis information seekers. The analysis also produced findings concerning the barriers to learning the nurses encountered and their shared interpretative repertories—especially regarding the continued stigma against cannabis use. In addition, findings indicate, the cannabis nurses are acting as boundary spanners and peripheral specialists in the adoption of cannabis as a radical innovation in mainstream healthcare. This analysis also revealed the absence of cannabis care-specific information technology and decision support systems and the development of a network of practice. The implications are that cannabis nurses may be normalizing cannabis for their colleagues, a dynamic that may be leading to the adoption of cannabis therapeutics in mainstream medicine.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference