Improving Situation Awareness to Advance Patient Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review

Area of Science:

• Nursing Informatics
• Patient Safety
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• Nurses' situation awareness is critical for recognizing patient status changes and preventing adverse events.
• Electronic health record (EHR) dashboards are potential tools to enhance nurses' situation awareness at the point of care.
• The impact of EHR dashboards on nurses' situation awareness remains largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the existing literature on interventions aimed at improving nurses' situation awareness.
• To evaluate the evidence supporting the use of EHR dashboards and other interventions for enhancing nurse situation awareness.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature review was conducted to identify studies on interventions improving nurses' situation awareness.
• The review focused on interventions applied at the point of care.
• Evidence regarding EHR dashboards and other interventions was critically assessed.

Main Results:

• Current research on improving nurses' situation awareness is limited.
• Studies examining EHR dashboards provided weak evidence for their effectiveness in enhancing situation awareness.
• Other interventions like communication strategies and structured assessments may be beneficial, but require more investigation.

Conclusions:

• There is a significant need for higher-quality research to identify effective interventions for improving nurse situation awareness.
• Future interventions, particularly EHR dashboards, should be designed based on theoretical situation awareness models and encompass all levels of awareness.
• Careful consideration of intervention design, content, and outcome measurement is crucial for developing effective situation awareness support tools.