A Different View of Health Information Technology Workarounds in Critical Care

When health information technology (HIT) was introduced into the hospital setting there was an obvious disruption to nursing workflow. In many cases it took a nurse extra steps or extra time to complete processes such as clinical documentation and medication administration. In response to HIT problems, nurses developed workarounds. Research on nursing workarounds has been hindered by a lack of variable definitions, measures and research models. This paper offers the results of an exploratory mixed methods study that proposes definitions for workarounds and describes the variable relationships with turbulence and patient safety in critical care.