Nurses more optimistic than doctors about smooth implementation of EHR

As healthcare facilities work to meet Meaningful Use (MU) guidelines for Electronic Health Records (EHR) implementation, a new study shows that nurses are more optimistic than doctors that the implementation will go smoothly.

The new study, published in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, finds that only 28.4 percent of physicians have “strong confidence” that their department will be able to solve MU implementation problems. This is compared to 47.1 percent of nurses who believe they can solve those problems.

Nurses also said they were more willing to change their practices to adapt to MU: 83.3 percent of nurses said they were “very willing” to change their work practices, compared to only 57.9 percent of physicians.

However, nurses and physicians were more closely aligned in thinking that MU won’t take attention away from patients. The majority of both nurses and physicians (89.2 percent and 92.5 percent, respectively) said they do “not strongly agree” that “MU diverts attention from other patient care activities.”

“Our study suggests that physicians may be less likely than advanced practice providers and nursing staff to believe that their department will effectively solve MU implementation problems and are less willing to change their practice behavior for MU,” wrote the researchers. “Our findings are also consistent with theory that has suggested an individual’s perceptions about the appropriateness of MU and management support for MU demonstration will correspond with his/her willingness to change work practices for MU.”

Let us hear from you: How has your day-to-day work changed with the implementation of EHR? Let us know in the comments!