Determining Website Credibility
Jessica Rojas
Chamberlain College of Nursing
Abstract
Advancements in technology have led people to be affected by an overflow of information. Many websites contain information that is unmonitored making it difficult for nurses to obtain accurate, credible information. It is essential for people such as health care professionals to know how to determine the credibility of a website in order to ensure that the information being provided to the patients is accurate. Nurses guide their practice by the use of evidence based practice and provide their patients with information on a routine basis. Thus, it is important for them to ensure a website is credible before providing the patient with any type of information. By the use of the criteria authority, information, objectivity, ease of navigation, and privacy/security policies, nurses can more effectively and efficiently determine website credibility. The criteria was applied to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) website in order to determine the credibility of this website with satisfactory results.
Determining Website Credibility While advances in technology can be beneficial, the growing need to have answers at our fingertips has contributed to issues with the credibility of websites. The internet is bursting with information that can be obtained through search engines or databases. However, problems arise when it comes to determining the accuracy behind the content obtained because some of
Education of patients and families regarding the reliability of internet information is prudent. Given the enormous amount of information available via the World Wide Web, not all of which, as you illustrate, is reliable, it is of great importance that patients and families comprehend the unreliability of some of the information they may acquire. Patients who are unable to gain access to health care secondary to a lack of funds, insurance, or availability of their provider, may be inclined to review their symptoms utilizing a search engine. Moreover, patients who were incapable of accessing healthcare due to reasons other than a lack of insurance are more likely to utilize the internet to obtain health related
The objective of this study is to identify and evaluate a health-related website within the domain indicated as heart.org or heart.gov. This study will provide empirical evidence to support the website as a credible source for inclusion in a scholarly assignment.
Since consumers are becoming more involved with their healthcare decisions, organizations and providers must adapt to consumer requisites and utilize independent resources to ensure the viability of their businesses. In 2008, a study reported that 81% of internet users and 66% of adults utilized online health information as a source for health related issues (Ha & Yun, 2011). Some examples of online health information resources comprised of search engines, organizational websites, and governmental agencies that participate in health related issues (Ha & Yun, 2011). By accessing health related information, consumers empower themselves with knowledge to assist in healthcare decisions and wellness management (Ha & Yun, 2011). As a result of consumers becoming better educated about healthcare, administrators must explore internet resources in order to maintain quality and services that is expected by consumers, and maintain the reputation of the organization.
In this paper, I have chosen a health-related website and evaluated its credibility. The search engine used to locate the domain, mayoclinic.org, was Google. The specific web address is http://mayoclinic.org. Mayo Clinic is a healthcare organization centered on patient care. It offers locations in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota. Mayoclinic.org is a website based from the organization, Mayo Clinic, which offers a wealth of health-related information on medicine, occupational health, health promotion, and disease management. The purpose of
The internet is the largest collection of accessible information ever, so it comes as no surprise that the internet is a major part of daily life. The use of the internet is so common that it has made its way into some important areas of society. Namely, the workplace, the educational system, and general leisure time, in and out of the home. However, people should understand that there are allot of unreliable sources that are waiting for you to enter their domain. Granted, there are reliable sources, as well. The difference is that a reliable source is there to provide readers or viewers with correct information. Namely, written and created by someone who has expertise in that subject like Microsoft. On the other hand, an unreliable
A network of 115 fact-checking organizations will provide the accuracy assessment for questionable articles. As a result, Google searches based on the same claim could return different opinions on the story's accuracy or inaccuracy from different fact-checkers. But even with differing opinions on the truth of a story, Google hopes that the range of opinions from different sources will give users an idea of the "degree of consensus" on any suspicious claims. The degree of consensus measures how many people who are knowledgeable on the subject agree on something.
I first examined the source of the information. I looked for things that would made this source believable. I looked for clues as to how they would know the information provided and what would make them an expert. As items that would help support the trust factor, I looked for information about the author and or publisher in order to gauge the author’s education or training. I didn’t find much to support the believability factor at all. I could not find any information about the publishing author or organization. There were no credentials on the “Home” or “About Us” page. The “Home” page refers to, “Our team of experts”, however, nowhere on the site could I find who those experts are. I visited the “Contact Us” page and there was a form requesting my contact information; name, email and phone number, rather than providing theirs. I clicked on the “Live Chat” radio button, and got the following message, “We’re sorry….The link you have clicked on has expired. Please refer to our Contact Us page for further assistance.” In addition to the anonymity, the written material is full of grammar errors, which also are clues to the website’s lack of credibility. In some areas of the content, the message was almost unreadable and difficult to understand. I counted at least seven
Around the globe, people highly rely on search engines to find any solution towards their question and you may be probably one of them. Yet, in the race to find the answer to even the simplest question, you may forget the fact that not every website has reliable data. In other words, it could be referred as “Fake News” that not only impels people to make their decision based on
We live in a culture that is constantly inundated with streams of information through a variety of social mediums. Patients have unlimited access to an extensive variety of resources regarding medical care through online blogs, websites and social media. In 2009, 45.5% of adults utilized online resources to gain more information regarding their health (Women’s Health USA, 2012). Considering that statistic is antiquated, one would suspect the percentage to have grown significantly over the years with the increase in access to online resources. It is imperative future advanced practice nurses have the ability to guide patients in evaluating what they read online. Can these sources provide reliable and appropriate medical advice?
You are so right. While social media is a good way of marketing a policy, the credibility of the source could be a problem. So as health care providers we should be aware of which sites are considered credible and which ones are not. Take for example a website, it is deemed credible if it is from a governmental or educational origin. The World Wide Web contains many different sites and finding a credible one can be challenging, not to mention time consuming. According to Roberts (2010), there are 5 crucial things that needs to be addressed when evaluating a website: credibility, currency, content, construction, and clarity. When verifying the credibility of a website one has to make sure it contains the author/authors name, publication date
Evans statements were legitimate to the 1970s period, because back then access to the internet was limited for most people. In the 1970s online information serves mainly military and academic purposes, however in contemporary society there are no limitations to online access in most parts of the world. Therefore the Internet and World Wide Web allows anyone to exchange information online without supervision, this primarily questions the credibility of online information.
A credible website has an author and the date it was published and things like that. I tried comparing two sites like this book did with Wikipedia articles and paper encyclopedia articles. I believe that Wikipedia is a good site to look into when you want information. Although it is not a credible site it gives a background information to start searching the topics. Whenever I tried to search something thee first thing that comes up is the Wikipedia. If students were allowed to use the Wikipedia site, I believe they would get more knowledge from it. Since everyone can edit on that page, there is more information than a page written by a
The easiest and most fundamental way people use online healthcare sites is to gain topic knowledge. The internet lays mountains of information at the end of our mouse clicks; this easy access to information has developed into a culture of information independence. The new generation of patients no longer wants to rely on one source or limited information on their condition. According to a recent journal article by Bill Walsh on America 's
At first, its appearance lacks robustness and confidence for those who are used to other governmental websites. Besides its minimalism design, it communicates straightforwardly to the user which can be dependable evidence as well.
to us for this paper, that we were to review sound, balanced websites and to avoid ones that may