International Journal of Academic Library and Information Science
 

Vol. 6(7), pp. 231–241, October, 2018. 

ISSN: 2360-7858

DOI: 10.14662/IJALIS2018.060

Full Length Research

This research investigated the internet use by medical doctors in the management of patients in privately owned hospitals/clinics in Jos metropolis. The entire population of 153 medical doctors from 41 privately owned hospitals were adopted in the research. Survey research design was the research method adopted for this investigation. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts and percentages were used to analyse the data generated. The findings of this research revealed among others that most 54 (59.34%) of the medical doctors working in private hospitals in Jos metropolis had good internet competencies; majority 47 (51.65%) of the doctors accessed the internet in their consulting rooms; the medical doctors did not know how to refine their searches using search engines, hence majority 59 (64.85%) of them restricted their searches to Google search; and the major challenges the doctors faced in the use of the internet were slow internet network connection and frequent electricity power failure. It was therefore, recommended among others that the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) which is the umbrella association of medical doctors in Nigeria, should organise workshops for their members in Jos metropolis. The workshop should be centred on the internet use and more emphasis should be on the use of search engines; owners of private hospitals in Jos metropolis should acquire generators to ease the problem of constant power failure. The research therefore, concludes that even though more than half of the medical doctors working in private hospitals/clinics in Jos metropolis know how to use the internet to manage their patients, there is still need to train the medical doctors on internet use. This will refine/ improve their searches and reduce the frustration normally associated with managing large quantity of down loads/hits produced when searching for information.

Key words: Medical, Doctors, Jos, Private, Hospitals, Internet, Patients, Management

Cite This Article As: Nwokedi, V.C., Nwokedi, G.I. (2018). Internet Use in Management of Patients by Medical Doctors: A Survey of Private Hospitals/Clinics in Jos Metropolis. Inter. J. Acad. Lib. Info. Sci. 6(7): 231-241