Nursing process documentation systems in clinical routine--prerequisites and experiences

Documentation of the nursing process is an important, but often neglected part of clinical documentation. Paper-based systems have been introduced to support nursing process documentation. Frequently, however, problems, such as low quality and high writing efforts, are reported. However, it is still unclear if computer-based documentation systems can reduce these problems. At the Heidelberg University Medical Center, computer-based nursing process documentation projects began in 1998. A computer-based nursing documentation system has now been successfully introduced on four wards of three different departments, supporting all six phases of the nursing process. The introduction of the new documentation system was accompanied by systematic evaluations of prerequisites and consequences. In this paper, we present preliminary results of this evaluation, focusing on prerequisites of computer-based nursing process documentation. We will discuss in detail the creation and use of predefined nursing care plans as one important prerequisite for computer-based nursing documentation. We will also focus on acceptance issues and on organizational and technical issues.