Educating Patients on Using Computer for Information

Patient Guide Chamberlain College of Nursing NR 361: Informatics Systems for Nursing Patient Guide to WWW A 28 year old male, college graduate, was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. He was very concerned with his diagnosis but anxious to know everything about this disease process. He wanted to be knowledgeable on Diabetes and take responsibility for his health. Knowing the Internet could offer him a wealth of information he just needed guidance on how to go about it. He was computer savvy but was not sure what sites would offer him the best information on his diagnosis. With the abundance of information on the Internet, it is very important to develop evaluation skills to assist in identifying quality Webb pages (Hanson & Hoss, 2008). A credible health site will contain information that is based on current scientific fact. The patient was directed to the site, http://www. diabetes. org. This site is associated with a reputable organization, the American Diabetes Association. The site provides contact information at the bottom of the page so you can verify validity of the organization. The site is well organized and maintained, a sign of inherent quality. The sources are listed and can be verified in other sources. The goals and purpose of the sponsoring organization is in the, â€Å"About Us† link. There are dates on the pages indicating, when it was created and updated keeping the information current, which is important with health information. This site has high quality and clinically relevant evidence. A search for Diabetes on Google brought up a site www. everydayh ealth. com/diabetes/index. aspx. This is a commercial site and the information lacked scientific quality. Most of the information given was opinion based. The site states that the information is not for treatment or diagnosis. There is also no contact information given. This site is maintained by a company that supports the consumer and advertising companies. The page had multiple advertisements that didn’t pertain to Diabetes. This would be a site that should raise concern and suspicion. The Internet can offer valuable information around the clock. However, the right tools to evaluate the information are the key to obtaining information that is correct for you (Anderson & Klemm, 2008). References Anderson,A. & Klemm,P. (2008) The Internet: Friend or Foe When Providing Patient Education?. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 12 (1), 55-63. Hanson,D. & Hoss,B. (2008) Evaluating the Evidence : Web Sites. Aorn Journal, 87 (1), 124-141.