The Hidden Lives of Nurses' Cognitive Artifacts

Area of Science:

• Nursing Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Standardizing nursing handoffs is crucial for communication, with electronic tools recommended.
• Nurses frequently use personal, paper-based
• paper brains
• to supplement electronic systems for handoffs, indicating a need for better electronic tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To gain a deep understanding of nurses' paper-based cognitive artifacts.
• To explore the role of these artifacts in the context of a cancer specialty hospital.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative interpretive descriptive study.
• Field observations (73 hours) and semi-structured interviews with 13 medical oncology nurses.
• Analysis of field notes, interview transcripts, artifact images, and memos.

Main Results:

• Nurses'
• paper brains
• are dynamic, personal tools with a life cycle (Creation, Application, Reproduction, Destruction) during each shift.
• These artifacts evolve over a nurse's career, adapting or becoming extinct based on changing cognitive needs and environmental shifts.

Conclusions:

• The life cycle and evolution of nurses'
• paper brains
• offer critical insights for designing effective electronic handoff tools.
• Electronic tools must accommodate the full life cycle and adaptive nature of these cognitive artifacts to ensure successful adoption and utilization in nursing practice.