Understanding Nurses' Perceptions of Electronic Health Record Use in an Acute Care Hospital Setting

Electronic health records (EHRs) are being implemented in health care environments in an effort to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of care. However, not all of these potential benefits have been demonstrated in empirical research. One of the reasons for this may be a number of barriers that prevent nurses from being able to incorporate EHRs into their professional practice. A review of the literature revealed a number of barriers to, and facilitators of EHR use by nurses. Among these, EHR usability, organizational context, and individual nurse characteristics were found to be concepts that influence use. It is currently unknown how these concepts together might influence nurses' perceptions of their ability to use the technology to support the nursing process. In this poster, the authors will describe a study aimed at achieving a better understanding of nurses' perceptions of their EHR use by investigating the concepts of EHR usability, organizational context and select individual nurse characteristics.