Education Service Used In Healthcare and Nursing & World Wide Web
What Is World Wide Web
The technology based educational resource that is familiar to most people is the World Wide Web. In simple terms, the World Wide Web is a virtual space for information. It is almost impossible to track its size because there are billions of web pages in existence, with several million new pages being added every month.
These web pages cover a wide range of topics and display a variety of formats, including text, audio, graphic, and video. Thousands of web pages focus on health information, products, and services. Healthcare consumers can find websites ranging from those that present videos of surgical procedures to those where they can ask questions as well as receive information.
World Wide Web Nursing Educational Source
Clearly, the World Wide Web is an exceptionally rich educational resource for both professional and consumer use. However, despite people's familiarity with the Web, there is some confusion regarding terminology. Therefore, it may be helpful to clarify some commonly used terms. The World Wide Web was first conceived by Tim Berners Lee and Robert Cailliau , two scientists working at a laboratory in Switzerland (Livinginternet.com, 2007).
World Wide Web Net working and Search Engine
From a technical perspective, it is composed of a network of information servers around the world that are connected to the Internet. The servers that make up the World Wide Web support a special type of document called a web page. Web documents or web pages are written using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).
Links on a web page allow the user to easily move from one web page to another with the click of a mouse. A user moves around the World Wide Web by way of a web browser, a special software program that locates and displays web pages. Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Internet Explorer are examples of web browsers.
Search engines and search directories are computer programs that allow the user to search the Web for specific subject areas. Search engines are robots that scour the Web for new websites, read them, and put text from them into a database they can access with queries. Search directories are hierarchical directories compiled by humans with references to websites; these directories are then accessed with a user query.
Google is an example of a search engine, and Yahoo! is an example of a search directory. The Web is so large that any single search engine or directory can only cover a small percentage of the web pages available (Pandia.com, 2006).
World Wide Web and Internet
A common misconception is that the World Wide Web and the Internet are two names that describe the same entity. In fact, the World Wide Web and the Internet are related but different. The Internet is a huge global network of computers established to allow the transfer of information from one computer to another. Unlike the World Wide Web, which was created to display information, the Internet was created to exchange information.
This is not to imply that information cannot be exchanged on the Web. Although originally created to display information, the World Wide Web is evolving from the simple static information delivery system of its early days to a more interactive platform that provides varying degrees of user control and interaction. This evolving version of the Web is sometimes referred to as Web 2.0.
The World Wide Web resides on a small section of the Internet and would not exist without the Internet's computer network. Conversely, the Internet could exist without the World Wide Web and, in fact, flourished for many years before the World Wide Web was ever conceived. Despite the immense size of both the Internet and the World Wide Web, the two are relative newcomers to the world of technology.
The Internet was originally commissioned in 1969 as a program of the US Department of Defense. The first experimental version of the World Wide Web was released in the late 1980s. Since their inception, both the Internet and the World Wide Web have grown dramatically in size and functionality.
Necessities Needed for World Wide Web
Healthcare consumers need to go no further than their computers if they wish to learn how to use the Internet or the World Wide Web. Getting into the Internet or the World Wide Web requires a computer with a telecommunication link and software to connect to an Internet service provider (ISP). Once a person is connected, it is simple to find a wide range of websites voted to teach Internet or World Wide Web navigation skills.
With a properly worded search term (eg, “World Wide Web and tutorial”), a search engine will uncover numbers of self paced tutorials designed to teach novice or intermediate users the desired skills. Most search engines even provide guidance in creating commands that will elicit the information needed.
Patient Education and World Wide Web
Both computer and information literacy are essential skills addressed in nursing education programs. Knowledge of the World Wide Web is critical for nurses who work with and educate healthcare consumers. This is true for the following reasons:
Nurses can expect to see patients enter the healthcare arena, having already searched the Web for information. In fact, 35% of adult patients report having gone online to search their symptoms to determine if it is necessary to see a healthcare provider (Fox & Duggan, 2013).
Therefore, familiarity with the type of information found on the Web helps direct the assessment of patients prior to teaching to identify the needs of the learner and to determine whether follow-up is necessary.
The World Wide Web is a tremendous resource for both consumer and professional education. To use the Web effectively, nurses must possess information literacy skills and be prepared to teach these same skills to patients, staff, and students including how to access the information on the Web and how to evaluate the information found. The World Wide Web provides a powerful mechanism for nurses to offer healthcare education to a global audience.
An increasing number of health organizations are creating websites with pages dedicated to presenting healthcare information for consumers. Although nurses may not be responsible for creating the HTML document that will be placed on the Web, they may work with the website designers to develop the information it contains, evaluate the accuracy of the information presented. and interact with healthcare consumers who access the site.
The World Wide Web is a vital tool for nurses. It is a mechanism for keeping up to date on professional and practice issues as well as a resource to be shared with clients. If it is to be used effectively, however, a plan to incorporate the World Wide Web into practice must be set in place.
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