Nurses' experience of using electronic patient records in everyday practice : a literature review

• Electronic patient record (EPR) systems have a huge impact onnursing documentation. Although the largest group of end-usersof EPRs, nurses have had minimal input in their design. Thisstudy aimed to review current research on how nurses experienceusing the EPR for documentation. A literature search was conductedin Medline and Cinahl of original, peer-reviewed articles from2000 to 2009, focusing on nurses in acute/ inpatient ward settings.After critical assessment, two quantitative and three qualitativearticles were included in the study. Results showed that nursesexperience widespread dissatisfaction with systems. Currentsystems are not designed to meet the needs of clinical practiceas they are not user-friendly, resulting in a potentially negativeimpact on individualized care and patient safety. There is anurgent need for nurses to be directly involved in software designto ensure that the essence and complexity of nursing is notlost in the system.

Keyword

computers

electronic records

nurses' experience

nursing documentation

patient care

MEDICINE

MEDICIN

Health Informatics

Hälsoinformatik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)