Computer skills among medical students and their attitudes and opinions towards computer education

ABSTRACT

In this study, 608 second, fourth and fifth year medical students were surveyed to investigate their computer literacy, individual computer skills, perceived usefulness of computers in medicine. 21% classified their computer literacy as negligible and 33% as deficient. 60% had used a computer before and 52% used one recently. Apart from computer games, different software packages were used by only less than 16% of the students. Students in the fourth and fifth years had greater computer skills than those in the second year. There were also significant differences between sexes, with male students having significantly greater computer skills than female students and this appeared to be related to their more positive attitudes, behavior and beliefs towards computer education. The perceived importance of computers in medicine was relatively deficient