A Survey on the Use and Acceptability of Smartphones for Nursing Education in Nigeria

Background: The global exponential increase in technology has resulted in smartphones being used for learning in low resource settings. Objectives: To investigate the use and acceptability of smartphones in nursing education in Nigeria. Design and Setting: Cross sectional descriptive survey design. Five nursing education institutions in Southwest Nigeria were included in the study. Participants: Nursing students in the setting were included (N = 1388), with a sample of 462 (university students: n = 354; college students: n = 108), allowing for an attrition rate of 10%. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire with two valid and reliable scales was used to measure use, acceptance, perceived ease of use and usefulness, attitudes, and challenges of using smartphones for educational purposes. Results: In the 451 respondents (97.6% response rate), the mean age was 21.31 (standard deviation [SD] = 3.59) years; most were female (389, 86.3%). Smartphones were common (422, 94.2%) and most (367, 81.4%) reported using their smartphone daily for educational purposes. High levels of smartphone acceptance with high ratings for perceived usefulness (M = 3.38, SD = 0.44), ease of use (M = 3.10, SD = 0.56) were reported with mixed attitudes (M = 2.75, SD = 0.35). Most of the respondents (428, 94.9%) found it useful for learning, but suitability of mobile content, unstable Internet, and data costs were barriers. Conclusion: Smartphones have emerged as unintended grassroots academic tools for learning in low resource settings, but challenges remain in terms of the appropriateness of educational learning material and costs.