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Nurses' requirements for information technology in the next millennium
H F Marin1, I C Cunha, C Safran
1Center for Clinical Computing, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. heimar@enterprise.bidmc.harvard.edu
Abstract:
The main purpose of this study was to identify nurses' requirements for information technology in the next millennium. We distributed 350 questionnaires in a teaching hospital in Brazil and in the USA. We received 86 from Brazil and 78 from USA. Besides the capabilities of computers to be used in different sectors of human actions, nurses' requirements for information technology can not be considered sophisticated. Nurses in Brazil prefer a standalone system. In contrast, in USA they prefer systems that could be integrated to the whole healthcare system. Also, in the USA, nurses were more comfortable with use of computers than nurses in Brazil. In general terms, nurses in both countries feel that computer systems could make their practice easier and more efficient.