USAGE OF SEARCH ENGINES FOR RESEARCH BY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS IN KATHMANDU VALLEY

Abstract

Internet search engine usage behaviours of present day medical postgraduate students are valuable to improve the academic works. For this reason, this study was carried out among postgraduate medical students of two medical institutions of Kathmandu to know the behaviours of Internet search engine users. The objective of the study was to investigate the Internet search engine usage behaviours and experiences among research postgraduate students of medical institutions. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The data were collected from the purposively selected postgraduate medical students of two medical collages namely Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital Library (IOM/TUTH) and National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS) of Kathmandu. The medical institutions and respondents are selected by adopting purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaire. The target population was comprised of postgraduate students of Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital Library (IOM/TUTH) and National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), Bir Hospital of Kathmandu. The actual sample of students for the study was excluded all those who had not yet been using search engines on the Internet. This was achieved during the questionnaire administration by determining whether an approached student had been using any search engines. Findings incorporating are problems, 12 (40%) respondents encountered problem of coping with too much information followed by finding irrelevant information 8 (27%). This suggests correctly specify the search topic or terms. There were 29 (97%) respondents who didn’t purchase web related materials and only 1 (3%) respondent purchased web related materials from the authority of websites or author. This indicates the low socio-economic status and currency restriction status of Nepal to purchase materials online. On knowledge of medical databases as per the research finding, 11 (37%) respondents were using HINARI, 4 (13%) used PUBMed and 3 (10%) used HINARI & PUBMed simultaneously. There were 12 (40%) respondents not using either of the medical databases in their academic works. This implies that still significant number of postgraduate medical students is not using medical databases due to various reasons.