Utilisation of electronic health record systems in clinical nursing practice in Ghana: predictors, benefits, and...

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) system has been successfully utilised to ease the burden of the traditional paper-based recording system in healthcare. Health facilities in Ghana have been using EHRs in their service delivery over the past few years; however, the benefits and challenges of this innovation for nurses have not been assessed, even though nurses constitute a large proportion of health workers who utilise the system in their daily service delivery.

The study aimed to assess the utilisation of EHR in relation to the predictors, benefits and challenges from the perspectives of nurses in healthcare facilities in Kumasi.

The study adopted a cross-sectional approach and used a multi-stage sampling method to select 176 respondents. With a validated questionnaire adapted from Venkatesh et al. data were collected and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics at the 0.5 significance level.

Fully functional EHR systems were in place at all centres, and nurses performed numerous nursing activities using them. Effort expectancy (β = 0.176), performance expectancy (β = 0.184), social influence (β = 0.185), and facilitating conditions (β = 0.189) significantly predicted the continuous use of EHR systems in hospitals. Nurses ranked the ease of retrieving patients' past medical records (RII = 0.868) as the highest benefit of the EHR system. In contrast, poor internet connectivity was ranked the highest challenge in the utilisation of EHRs (Kendall ranking = 9.81).

It is recommended that robust EHR systems, improved internet connectivity, adequate ICT infrastructure, and continuous staff training and supervision be implemented in all hospitals in Ghana.