Development of a Nursing Electronic Medical Record Usability Protocol

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Nursing Informatics

Background:

• Electronic medical records (EMRs) are crucial in healthcare, but their usability significantly impacts nursing workflows and patient care.
• Organizations need methods to customize EMRs and assess their impact on usability.
• Existing guidelines, like NISTIR 7804, provide a foundation for usability assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a protocol for measuring electronic medical record (EMR) usability from a nursing perspective.
• To create a scoring methodology for quantifying EMR usability.
• To evaluate a specific EMR's usability using the developed protocol.

Main Methods:

• Protocol development guided by NISTIR 7804 (Technical Evaluation, Testing, and Validation of the Usability of Electronic Health Records).
• Usability measured via effectiveness, efficiency (performance testing with scenarios), and satisfaction (System Usability Scale).
• A scoring formula was created to grade the EMR based on these metrics.

Main Results:

• A replicable protocol and scoring formula for assessing nursing EMR usability were successfully developed.
• The evaluated electronic medical record received an overall usability grade of "C".
• The developed protocol and scoring methodology can be implemented by other organizations.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully measured and rated nursing EMR usability by adapting and expanding upon government guidelines.
• The developed protocol provides a standardized approach for evaluating EMR usability in clinical settings.
• Further use and expansion of this protocol can lead to improved EMR design and implementation.