Impact of Healthcare Information Technology on Nursing Practice.

PURPOSE: To report additional mediation findings from a descriptive cross sectional study to examine if nurses' perceptions of the impact of healthcare information technology on their practice mediates the relationship between electronic nursing care reminder use and missed nursing care. DESIGN: The study used a descriptive design. The sample (N = 165) was composed of registered nurses working on acute care hospital units. The sample was obtained from a large teaching hospital in Southeast Michigan in the fall of 2012. All eligible nursing units (n = 19) were included. METHODS: The MISSCARE Survey, Nursing Care Reminders Usage Survey, and the Impact of Healthcare Information Technology Scale were used to collect data to test for mediation. Mediation was tested using the method described by Baron and Kenny. Multiple regression equations were used to analyze the data to determine if mediation occurred between the variables. FINDINGS: Missed nursing care, the outcome variable, was regressed on the predictor variable, reminder usage, and the mediator variable impact of technology on nursing practice. The impact of healthcare information technology (IHIT) on nursing practice negatively affected missed nursing care (t = -4.12, p < .001), explaining 9.8% of variance in missed nursing care. With IHIT present, the predictor (reminder usage) was no longer significant (t = -.70, p = .48). Thus, the reduced direct association between reminder usage and missed nursing care when IHIT was in the model supported the hypothesis that IHIT was at least one of the mediators in the relationship between reminder usage and missed nursing care. CONCLUSIONS: The perceptions of the impact of healthcare information technology mediates the relationship between nursing care reminder use and missed nursing care. The findings are beneficial to the advancement of healthcare technology in that designers of healthcare information technology systems need to keep in mind that perceptions regarding impacts of the technology will influence usage. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Many times, information technology systems are not designed to match the workflow of nurses. Systems built with redundant or impertinent reminders may be ignored. System designers must study which reminders nurses find most useful and which reminders result in the best quality outcomes.

Electronic nursing care reminders: implications for nursing leaders.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to report the results of a replication study of the relationship between self-reported nursing care reminder (NCR) use and missed nursing care. DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional correlational design was used. The sample (N = 124) was composed of medical/surgical and ICU RNs working on acute care hospital units in a large Midwestern teaching hospital. METHODS: The MISSCARE Survey, Nursing Care Reminders Usage Survey, and the Impact of Health Care Information Technology Survey were used to collect data. Adjusted hierarchical multiple regression was used to determine study outcomes. RESULTS: Nurses who use NCRs more frequently have decreased reports of missed nursing care. Nurses who perceive the impact of healthcare technology as positive on their practice also have decreased missed nursing care. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that NCRs are an effective intervention to decrease missed nursing care in acute care hospitals.