Factors affecting nurses' acceptance of a digital triage platform in primary health care in Sweden: an extended UTAUT...

Digital symptom checkers might help facilitate effective triage in primary healthcare. However, evidence regarding their acceptance among healthcare professionals remains limited. Identifying key factors of adoption is essential for successful integration into clinical practice.This study aims to identify factors most relevant to nurses' acceptance of a newly implemented digital triage platform and map their opinions regarding its use in Swedish primary healthcare.

A cross-sectional quantitative survey study based on an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework was distributed to nurses involved in digital triage at 82 primary healthcare centers in Sweden. 164 registered nurses participated. The platform, 1177-direct, is an online symptom checker used in triage. Associations between extended UTAUT constructs and 'Intention to use/recommend' were analyzed using linear regression models.

Nurses reported overall negative perceptions of the platform, with 61.6% expressing low 'Intention to use/recommend'. All constructs showed significant associations with 'Intention to use/recommend' in simple regressions. In the multiple regression models, 'Performance' was the strongest construct (β = 0.75 and 0.58), followed by 'Effort' in the original UTAUT model and 'Information transfer' and 'Work environment' in the extended model.

Nurses' acceptance of the digital triage platform was primarily associated with perceived improvements in work performance. While extending the UTAUT model with context-specific constructs enhanced explanatory power, results should be interpreted with caution given limitations such as cross-sectional design, construct overlap and shared method variance. The results emphasize the need for contextualized frameworks when evaluating eHealth implementation in primary healthcare.