Nurses' experience in real-time documentation in an orthopaedic ward - a qualitative study

Short Summary

This qualitative study aims to explore how nurses experience the implementation of real-time documentation and how they experience working with real-time documentation. Real-time documentation enables a nurse to record and access data in real-time whilst being with the patient - as opposed to leaving the patient to access a physical workstation. Twenty-one nurses working with real-time documentation will be interviewed.

Rationale

Nurses are obliged to update patient journals when providing nursing care. Documentation of nursing is considered a work tool that enables coherent patient care and improves the quality of nursing. Studies have shown that nursing documentation is deficient, random, and varying among nurses, wards, and hospitals. The Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Hospital of Southern Denmark have implemented real-time documentation in connection with renovation and relocation. The new location provides patients with single rooms each containing a workstation computer. This enables nurses to directly record and browse data together with the patient. Knowledge about nurses' experiences of this change in routine the impact of real-time documentation is needed.

This study will contribute to gaining knowledge about how to apply real-time documentation in practice whilst increasing the quality of nursing. The study will also show how an organization can support a more uniform and systematically work routine with a positive impact on the working environment.

Real-time documentation enables a nurse to record and access data in real-time whilst being with the patient - as opposed to leaving the patient to access a physical workstation. Twenty-one nurses working with real-time documentation will be interviewed.

Description of the cohort

The study will be conducted at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Hospital of Southern Denmark, Aabenraa and include nurses working with real-time documentation in the orthopaedic ward. Twenty-one nurses will be invited to participate in the study, where purposeful sampling is applied to ensure maximum variation concerning age, gender, years of experience.

Data and biological material

Three focus group interviews with twenty-one nurses.

Collaborating researchers and departments

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, Aabenraa and Department of Regional Health Research, University of Southern Denmark

Postdoc. Kirsten Specht

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, Aabenraa,

Head Nurse Merete Hellerup

Publications associated with the project

Jeanett H. Jepsen, International Journal of Orthopaedic and Trauma Nursing,