The healthcare system’s effective development largely depends on the state of professional training level, rational placement, and nursing staff use as the most voluminous component of the healthcare human resource in healthcare. In today’s health care system, nursing remains a critical component with significant human resources. The industry needs innovative developments in the diagnosis, treatment of diseases, an effective system of medical personnel training, and modern information systems. Around the world, innovation in nursing is seen as the basis for daily practice, aimed at improving the quality of patient care and reducing the cost of healthcare services (Schlotzer & Madsen, 2010). Furthermore, the need for innovative solutions is very high as today’s healthcare systems are struggling to provide affordable, safe, and effective services while containing their cost of care.
Analyzing this case study makes it possible to see how usability challenges occur and what drives them in particular. In addition, when implementing a new technological system, the human factor – the time to adapt – should be considered. Otherwise, the new system will make the work more complicated rather than easier. To begin with, it is worth investigating why the new system did not work as expected and assessing the usability issues and especially their causes. First, the functions and organizational forms of nursing work are changing in line with the system’s new challenges. Nurses are a human resource and, thus, the human factor determining the usability challenges. People who perform routine work related to the documentation now have to be reorganized into new procedural routines (Ball et al., 2011). This caused stress and misunderstanding; nurses had to switch abruptly to the new work system without moving away appropriately from the old one. Thus, the electronic documentation system, which was supposed to facilitate maintaining patient files, only increased the staff’s stress. The reason for this was the abrupt introduction of the new system and the lack of a transition period needed for adaptation.
Secondly, if the appropriate logistical base does not support the innovation process, it is problematic to expect actual use of the innovation. The personal interest of both innovators and employees of practical healthcare plays an essential role in implementing an innovative project. In this case, as the new system had, in the opinion of the doctors, no positive practical value, introducing the innovation was painful (Gruber et al., 2009). In addition, based on the assignment, workers had difficulties using the system due to numerous technical problems, which indicates a problem in human-computer interaction.
I believe that these three factors are the main reasons for the painful introduction of the new information system into nursing practice. The reasons are the lack of commitment of the nursing staff, the underdeveloped technical base, and the dramatic change in the tasks of the staff. These challenges have arisen both because of the technical design of the system, or rather its underdevelopment, and because of an inappropriate implementation process (Kaufman et al., 2006). Any implementation of a new system should be gradual, slowly getting the medical staff up to speed. An important factor is also the system’s user-friendliness, namely the completeness and enlightenment of its technical side. Any innovative information system should be designed to meet the needs of all staff. If these rules are followed, the implementation will go more smoothly and successfully.
References
Ball, M. J., Douglas, J. V., Hinton Walker, P., DuLong, D., Gugerty, B., Hannah, K. J., DuLong, D., Newbold, S., K., Sensmeier, J., E., Skiba, D., J., Troseth, M., R., Gugerty, B., Walker, P., H., Judith V. D., & Troseth, M. R. (2011). Nursing informatics: Where technology and caring meet (4th Ed.). Springer-Verlag.
Gruber, D., Cummings, G. G., LeBlanc, L., & Smith, D. L. (2009). Factors influencing outcomes of clinical information systems implementation: A systematic review. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 27(3), 151-163.
Kaufman, D., Roberts, W. D., Merrill, J., Lai, T., & Bakken, S. (2006). Applying an evaluation framework for health information system design, development, and implementation. Nursing Research, 55(2), 537-542.
Schlotzer, A., & Madsen, M. (2010). Health information systems: Requirements and characteristics. Studies in Health Technology & Informatics, 151(1), 156-166.