The International Council of Nurses (a HIFA Supporting Organisation) has issued a 1-page position statement on ‘The right to connect via information and communication technology’. The full statement can be downloaded as a PDF here:
Here are extracts:
‘The International Council of Nurses (ICN) strongly believes that people should be able to connect with each other and to share information via information and communication technology (ICT) – fixed-telephone, mobile-cellular telephone and the Internet. ICN believes that ICT can improve access to good healthcare, address inequalities in its provision and help citizens take a more active role in healthcare.
‘Nurses, other healthcare workers, patients, carers and citizens increasingly rely on ICT to communicate, to manage information and to access knowledge. However, there is a significant and persistent global ‘digital divide’…
‘Unless there is more equity in access, the ongoing shift towards electronic communication such as SMS and email and towards the Internet as a source information and knowledge will serve to disenfranchise a large proportion of the world’s population and a significant number of nurses.’
In 2010 HIFA produced on behalf of ICN a more detailed fact sheet on this subject: Meeting the information needs of health professionals. This was produced as part of a major campaign by ICN and other international health organisations called the Positive Practice Environments Campaign. For reasons that are unclear, the PPE campaign did not receive renewal of funding and was unfortunately terminated. The fact sheet is freeely available here:
Positive Practice Environments: Meeting the information needs of health professionals
Best wishes,
Neil
Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa2015.org
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