Abstract
A method is presented for understanding how people interact with information sources in complex work environments. The method is based on 1) the importance of focusing on information transformations in cognitive work systems articulated in the information trails model and 2) the concept of mediated actions from activity theory as a framework for systematically describing the activities of a human actor. The method was applied to data from a single observation of a home healthcare nurse completing medication-related activities during an admission visit. During the visit, the nurse provided or obtained information using 21 different action patterns to interact with information sources. Using these action patterns, the complexity of different care activities was inspected. The presented method provides a tool for identifying work system redesign opportunities for improving information flow.
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