Nurses' Perceptions of Personal Communication Devices in the Perioperative Environment

Personal communication devices (PCDs) support reliable information sharing between clinical personnel to ease workflow processes. Perioperative leaders at a major medical center conducted a long-term quality improvement project evaluating perioperative nurse perceptions regarding PCDs. Perioperative nurses completed two surveys and the investigators conducted an independent group t test (2-tailed) to test for differences in RN perceptions of PCDs from initial use during a pilot study and after the nurses had used the technology for four years. The authors also used qualitative content analysis to assess the qualitative items on the survey. The RNs noted that the PCDs were particularly beneficial when contacting team members for assistance and that response times improved. Overhead pages decreased from 125 per six-hour period to an average of less than one per six-hour period. The perioperative nurses' perceptions of the PCDs have improved four years after implementation.