Not another box to check! Using the UTAUT to explore nurses' psychological adaptation to electronic health record usability

Abstract

As the integration of electronic health records (EHRs) continues to expand throughout healthcare organizations worldwide, nurses are faced with the challenge to acclimate to a dynamic technology-based environment of patient care. As technology advances, EHR usability may influence nurses' clinical performance and require nurses to adapt to a wide range of situations associated with electronic documentation. While perceived benefits of EHRs include improvements in healthcare delivery and patient outcomes, there are also unintended consequences associated with EHR usability. The aim of this article is to explore dimensions of EHR usability that may influence nurses' psychological adaptation to the use of EHRs in daily practice. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) consists of four constructs theorized to have a direct influence on end-user behavior and acceptance of technology: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. The UTAUT provides the framework to explore EHR usability as found in literature and describe the positive and negative psychological responses of nurses related to the use of EHRs in daily practice. Integration of EHRs into daily nursing practice can result in positive experiences or have a negative impact on nurses ability to perform their role as patient caregivers. While integration of EHRs into healthcare systems can facilitate improvements in patient outcomes, the delivery of patient care and nurses' daily practices can simultaneously be complicated by EHR usability issues. Although positive and negative experiences of nurses in relationship to EHR usability can be found in literature, there is limited evidence on nurses' psychological adaptation to use of EHRs. Further research on EHR usability is needed based on nursing perspectives and feedback to determine the psychological impact EHRs exert on nurses, discover effective methods for resolving issues, and promote positive trends associated with EHR usability.