Computer literacy and information retrieval techniques are both skills that are required to undertake further educational study effectively. In the summer of 2000, a group of post-registered nurses and midwives on undergraduate courses in one university department, completed a self-assessment questionnaire to examine their knowledge and competence of computer and information literacy. This paper describes the method and results of this study with the results indicating that these students had deficits in both computer and information literacy. The study also outlines the structural and functional difficulties that need to be resolved around the area of using computers in education for nurses and midwifes.