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User attitudes can help to identify practical
issues related to using a technology. The aim of
this study was to develop and validate an
instrument to assess attitudes o f nursing and
pharmacy staff on using 2D bar-code
technology in dispensing and drug
administration. The Technical Acceptance
Model (TAM) was used as the basis for
developing the instrument. New items were
added to address areas more specific to 2D
bar-code technology. All items were measured
using a five-point Likert scale. The validity and
psychometric properties of the instrument
were assessed using responses front 46 health
care professionals (30 nursing and 16
pharmacy staff). The resulting instrument
contained 26 items. Factor analysis extracted
6 constructs that were not identical but
generally conformed to the factors in the
TAM. The six constructs measured 'attitudes
of output and intention to use’, 'perceived
usefulness’, ‘perceived ease of use’, ‘external
influences’, ‘job relevance’ and ‘perceived
adequacy of training'. The fee tor structure
showed good construct validity. All
correlations between hypothesised
construct and item were above 0.4 after
adjusting for overlap. The instrument showed
good reliability with an overall Cronbach's
alpha of 0.86 and overall intra-class correlation
of 0,89, A valid and reliable instrument to
measure attitudes of pharmacy and nursing staff
on using 2D bar-code technology was
developed as an extension of the TAM, This
instrument may be used to assess user
attitudes before implementing the 2D barcoding technology or for continuous
improvement of the system
