A digital bulletin noticeboard for kyambogo university hospital

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to explore how Kyambogo University Hospital can use a digital bulletin noticeboard as a tool for information dissemination. The objectives of the study included: finding out the current methods of using the manual notice board, identifying the challenges of using the manual notice board finding out the solutions to the challenges of using the manual notice board, establishing requirements for designing a digital bulletin notice board and designing a digital bulletin notice board for Kyambogo University Hospital. A cross-sectional survey design was used in this study, and a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data was collected. Quantitative data was analysed descriptively using frequencies and percentages, while qualitative data was analysed thematically. In terms of the first objective, the findings of the study generally portray an undesirable picture with regard to the usage of the manual noticeboard. While most respondents (70%) reported visiting the noticeboard often like once in two months, only 33.3% of these visited the noticeboard on a daily basis. In terms of the second objective, most respondents (66.6%) were of the view that visiting the noticeboard was a challenge to them, and this was mainly attributed to factors such as user-unfriendliness of the noticeboard (46.6%), out datedness of the manual noticeboard as a tool of information dissemination (33.3%) and inconvenience of the notice board (20%). In terms of the third objective, an overwhelming majority of respondents (89.6%) felt that it was necessary for Kyambogo University Hospital to have a digital bulletin notice board, and this was because they are of the view that the digital bulletin notice board would addresses the challenges associated with the manual noticeboard including user- unfriendliness, out datedness as a tool of information dissemination, and inconvenience. It was also reported that, in case a digital bulletin notice board is adopted, the most preferred feature it should have is to ability to send reminders (86.5%), followed by ability to send notification alerts (75.7%), provision for interaction (69.4%) and ability to link to other relevant cites (69.4%) among others such as ability to post adequate and wellorganized information as well as the tool having security and privacy features which entail user identifications and passwords. The study concludes and recommends that in order to encourage and attract more hospital clients at Kyambogo University Hospital to read updates and announcements, a new and creative way of delivering information should be adopted with specific enabling factors such as interaction, linkage to other sites, well organized information and availability of interne