104 Nurse Education Today (2001) 21, 104–109 © 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd Note on terminology In everyday parlance, and in the media, the terms ‘Internet’ and ‘World Wide Web’ (WWW) are often used interchangeably. This is perhaps regrettable, as the two terms have distinct meanings. The Internet is the interconnected network of computer networks, and the protocols which govern how it works. It has been in existence since 1969: The World Wide Web is, strictly speaking, an application of the Internet, among others such as e-mail or File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and was developed much later. For the purposes of this article I will use the term ‘Internet’ to include the WWW. For reasons of conciseness, the word ‘patients’ should be taken to include ‘clients’ and, where appropriate, ‘carers’. Introduction The evidence of the impact of Internet is all around us. Among certain social groups, whether delineated by class, occupation or location, access to the Internet in the UK is fast approaching the levels of ubiquity prevalent in California. Estimates vary wildly, and while data on Internet use are notoriously hard to collect and unreliable, ‘There are now reckoned to be up to 18 million connections in the UK, where 29% of households now own a computer.’ (Marr 1999). The General Household Survey data on computer ownership, which are probably more reliable, show that 64% of professional households had a home computer as long ago as 1996, compared with 15% of unskilled manual households (ONS 1998). Patterns of Internet usage The impact that this will have on health care has been widely debated in both the professional and the popular media. It is, however, certain that this large population of Internet users (who tend to be people with the highest levels of education, as the General Household Survey data show) are using the Internet as a source of information about their health. The Health on the Net Foundation (HON) Article Use of the Internet by patients: not a threat to nursing, but an opportunity? Stephen Timmons Stephen Timmons MA (Cantab.), MA (York), MSc (Glasg), Lecturer, School of Nursing, Postgraduate Division, Nottingham University, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK. Tel.: +115 9709460; E-mail: stephen.timmons@ nottingham.ac.uk Manuscript accepted: 7 September 2000 The Internet poses numerous challenges for health care professionals. A significant one is the way in which patients, clients and carers now have access to large amounts of unfiltered, specialized health information, much of which was, hitherto, solely the province of the professionals. The specific problems that this poses, in terms of the effect that it might have on the therapeutic relationship, are discussed, along with some of the proposed solutions, such as the National Electronic Library for Health initiative and NHS Direct Online. Since this change is inevitable, it is recommended that nurses should seek to build on their role as educators of patients and carers. One of the ways in which they can do this is by guiding patients’ and carers’ use of the Internet, and helping them to evaluate the information that they find. © 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd doi:10.1054/nedt.2000.0510, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on