Artifacts at Work

Abstract

This study focuses on nursing students' internships and how the students are handling the tension created by expectations and dilemmas when using medical records (MRs) in practice. The overall aim of this study is to develop knowledge about what is required by nursing students in order to coordinate and sustain knowledge through the use of MRs. The theoretical approach to learning that has been adopted implies that learning takes place in social activities, and empirically this means that the study of learning and professional knowledge is a matter of studying activities where, for example, technologies are put into practical use, where experience and knowledge are brought to life. The data consists of observations of five nursing students during their second year in nursing school, interviews and ten video-recordings from shift reports. The result shows that nursing students regularly use MRs as a source of information and that they are struggling with transforming that information into action-oriented knowledge. The conclusion is that information systems such as MRs need to be understood and defined by teachers as materials and devices created or adapted to solving practical problems, and should be treated thereafter. Providers of education need to take into account the different types of intellectual or practical knowledge that professionals like nurses are expected to have, where the use of technology cannot be separated from, but need to be integrated into other aspects of knowledge.