Nomophobia in healthcare: an observational study between nurses and students

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK: Technological devices abuse can be considered a form of addiction defined in the literature as nomophobia. The phenomenon appears to be quite widespread among nurses and nursing students; nomophobic behaviours of professionals can lead to an impoverishment of the care provided. The aim of this study is to investigate the construct in a University and in an hospital in northern Italy and evaluate the levels of nomophobia between nurses and students. METHODS: It has been conducted an observational study with a questionnaire with a sample of nursing students and nurses. Both the two studies had the common goal to investigate the levels of nomophobia and evaluate the comparison between the two groups. RESULTS: In general, both nurses and students they don’t seem to demonstrate nomophobia’s critical levels. The comparison of the daily use of the smartphone between nurses and students shows that the frequent use of students is balanced by the nurses’ daily trend line that progressively decreases. Both nurses and students affirm to use, with a certain frequency their smartphone at work although, above all the students, usually for appropriate and justified reasons. CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to consider the development of an educational project that regularizes the use of smartphones, explaining the meaning of nomophobia, right from the beginning of the University career so to correctly address the student’s (and future professionals) behaviours to make them aware of mobile phones’ misuse, especially in the clinical setting that can easily cause distractions and consequently irreversible errors. (www.actabiomedica.it)