Patients' perceptions of nurses' bedside use of PDAs

Despite emerging interest in PDA use in healthcare, few studies have explored patients' perceptions of this technology being incorporated into their care. The purpose of this study was to explore patients' perceptions of nurses' bedside use of PDAs. This descriptive, exploratory qualitative study used one-on-one, in-depth interviews to collect data from 14 patients at a medical center in Taiwan. Interview data were analyzed according to Miles and Hubermans' data reduction, data display, and conclusion verification process. The results indicate that patients perceived that PDA use could increase nurses' efficiency in data retrieval and calculation, were concerned about data accuracy and privacy, preferred that nurses explain the reasons for PDA use, suggested more functions for PDAs (eg, entertainment for pediatric patients, wireless paging for clinicians), and valued nursing care over technology use. These results can be used as a reference for clinicians implementing a point-of-care technology for patient care.