Developing information literacy skills in re-registration nurses: An experimental study of teaching methods

AimTo compare the effectiveness of an online information literacy tutorial with a face-to-face session for teaching information literacy skills to nurses.DesignRandomised control trial.ParticipantsSeventy-seven first year undergraduate pre-registration diploma nursing students.InterventionOnline in-house information literacy tutorialComparisonOne hour face-to-face session, covering the same material as the intervention, delivered by the nursing subject librarian.MethodsSearch histories were scored using a validated checklist covering keyword selection, Boolean operators, truncation and synonyms. Skills retention was measured at 1month using the same checklist. Inferential statistics were used to compare search skills within and between groups pre and post-session.ResultsThe searching skills of first year pre-registration nursing students improve following information literacy sessions (p