Perceptions of Nurses Regarding Technology and Impact on the Quality of Care - Essay Example

Perceptions of Nurses Regarding Technology and Impact the Quality of Care Introduction Introduction Background Information The role of nurses in ensuring patients receive quality care is significant. Nurses spend most of their time with patients as compared to other health care providers. Therefore, the health statuses of patients and their prognosis depend highly on the quality of care nurses give. Nurses have to meet myriad demands in their highly distractible environment. They are usually out of resources and supplies to care for their patients delaying the services they offer. Their capacity to offer standard care is increasingly hard in such settings, and it is getting harder with the automation of services. Hospitals are currently rushing to switch their services from manual systems to electronic databases and other automated services. As they are doing this, nurses are monitoring the impacts of automation on their capacity to deliver services (Schwartz, 2012). Hospitals are increasingly adopting technology in their services because of pressure from purchasing groups, governments, and consumers. This pressure appears to be causing a negative effect. Surveys indicate that many hospitals are increasingly receiving pressure regarding the implementation of computerized provider order entry (CPOE). Few hospitals in the United States had adopted CPOE in 2004 regardless of its effectiveness in preventing grave medical errors (Poon et al., 2004). Recent findings show that pressure from various stakeholders might be having an effect as 49% of hospitals in the US have adopted the systems while 51% plan to do so within a year (Conn, 2007). Elsewhere, Arab hospitals are also grappling with automation of services while African-based hospitals 33% percent use mobile technologies (Belle & Banderker, 2010; Hayajneh & Zaghloul, 2010). Research Problem Automating services is indeed affecting the quality of services that nurses are offering to patients. Recent studies documenting the impact of information technologies on the quality of nursing care depict that the correlation between care and IT is anything but straightforward (Poon et al., 2004; Schwartz, 2012). Evidence is also developing reflecting the poor perception of these technologies by nursing staff owing to their poor design, which can lead to inaccuracies and patient injury (Han, Carcillo, Clark, & Watson, 2005; Patterson, Rogers, & Chapman, 2006). Nurses’ perception of technology in the hospital settings might be an important factor behind reduced quality of care. Purpose This research’s main purpose is to test the premise that the perception of nurses regarding technology in their practice may affect the quality of care they give as individuals and as a unit. Hypothetically, the perceptions nurses have that they have individual capacity to offer quality care depends on their beliefs regarding their competence to use technology. Moreover, ease of use, usefulness, compatibility, and computer self-efficacy may also have a role to play in the quality of care. Therefore, this study aims at ascertaining these hypotheses. Methods Research Design The adoption of technology in hospitals might vary. Additionally, the perception of technology in the nursing field for a given hospital may be different. Therefore, this study will employ a correlational design in collecting its data. This design will assist in elucidating the perception of automation and its impact on patient safety, while comparing various views. This design will also allow an assessment of co-variation among the different variables that this research will use. The goal will be to highlight the predictive relationships using correlation and other statistical techniques. The results of this study design will also have decision-making implications, as statistical analysis can reflect the perception of technology use by nurses (Polit & Beck, 2008). Quantitative study Research in nursing can be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. In this study, the best design is quantitative research design for various reasons. In particular, this study will take the correlational type, which is a form of quantitative design. The present level of knowledge regarding the research problem influenced this choice requiring a correlational study to elucidate the relationship between the involved variables (Polit & Beck, 2008). In this case, this research will establish the correlation between the perception that nurses have towards technology and the quality of care given to patients. Using a quantitative design, this research will be able to establish whether perception towards technology presents a significant issue in the provision of care to patients. If sufficient correlational studies had been done, then the research would have considered experimental or quasi-experimental research. Study setting This study will include two pediatric hospitals located within tertiary institutions. The first hospital, Hospital A, has 222 patient beds and operates in the Midwest. On the other hand, Hospital B, located in the South, consists of 162 patient beds. This study will study three units within each of these hospitals: hematology/transplant unit, pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and a general surgical unit. Hospital A has 24 beds in each of these units, while Hospital B has 20 beds in PICU unit, 32 beds in general surgery unit, and 42 beds in the hematology unit. Both hospitals use computerized provider order entry (CPOE) to back patient care. The COPE specifically includes patient monitoring systems, automated alerts, RFID device monitoring systems, and a range of PCs including moveable computers and desktops. Sample Population and Size The study population will include nurses working in Hospital A and B. This study will use a multistage cluster sampling technique in which the researcher will take several stages. The first stage will identify nurses who work at the hospital while the second stage will identify the permanent staff working more than 24 hours a week. This method of sampling will help the research arrive at the intended results while presenting few economic challenges. On the other hand, sampling technique is pragmatic (Polit & Beck, 2008).The sampling procedure will also consider some inclusion and exclusion criteria. Full-time nurses who accumulate more than twenty-four hours a week in each of the hospital will be considered for the study. However, nurses who do not offer direct care to patients, temporary nurses, and float nurses will not feature in this study. Measures The data collection tool will contain a 7-point Likert scale that will have values that range from 1 to 7. The tool will also include measures that have two outcomes. The first question will be on perceived personal capacity to give quality care based on indicators of nursing quality by Lynn (2007). The second measure will include questions that will determine the worth of care delivered by nurses in their different units. Besides this, the data collection tool will also include independent variables that contained in the Technology Acceptance model. These variables will measure the beliefs of nurses concerning the application of IT in hospitals. The wordings of the data collection tool will refer to the existing technologies in the hospitals that will participate in the research. Ethical considerations Any study should consider personal beliefs, values, and the norms of the society while collecting and reporting data (Polit & Beck, 2008). This study will apply ethical considerations while collecting data from nurses in Hospital A and Hospital B. The first step in ensuring ethics are followed in this study will involve submission of the proposal to the research and ethics committee of the university. The study will proceed to the next step once the ethics committee of the university presents an approval. This approval and cover letter will accompany the questionnaires that the researcher will use in gathering data from the respondents. In addition to this, the research will assure anonymity to the respondents who will only participate in the study voluntarily. Finally, this study is a low risk study and consent from the respondents will be based on implied consent rather than a written one. Conclusion The use of technology by hospitals due to various is increasing. It is presumed that nursing care quality could be dwindling owing to their perception towards technology. This study’s aim is to ascertain whether the perception that nurses have towards technology affects the services they offer towards patients. This study’s results will be beneficial to the nursing field and will add to the existing literature on the impacts of technologies and IT on the quality of services given by nurses. References Belle, V., & Banderker, N. (2010). Mobile Technology Adoption by Doctors In Public Healthcare In South Africa. University of Cape Town. Conn, J. (2007). Level, More Moving to Entry. Modern Healthcare, 37(9), 41–44. Han, Y., Carcillo, J., Clark, R., & Watson, R. (2005). Unexpected Increased Mortality After Implementation of a Commercially Sold Computerized Physician Order Entry System. Pediatrics, 116(6), 1506–1512. Hayajneh, Y. A., & Zaghloul, A. A. (2010). Barriers to the Adoption of Health Information Technology in Arab Countries and Hospitals: Practitioners ’ Perspective. Quality of Life through Quality of Information, 24, 1–3. Patterson, E., Rogers, M., & Chapman, R. (2006). Compliance With Intended Use of Bar code Medication Administration in Acute and Long-term Care. Human Factors, 48(1), 15–22. Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2008). Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Poon, E. G., Blumenthal, D., Jaggi, T., Honour, M. M., Bates, D. W., & Kaushal, R. (2004). Overcoming Barriers to Adopting And Implementing Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems In U.S. Hospitals. Health Affairs, 23(4), 184–190. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.23.4.184 Schwartz, A. (2012). Nurses Adopt Electronic Health Records. UCSF Science of Caring. Retrieved 14 March 2014, from http://scienceofcaring.ucsf.edu/future-nursing/nurses-adopt-electronic-health-records Read More