Experienced time pressure and stress: Electronic health records usability and information technology competence play a role

Tuulikki Vehko; Hannele Hyppönen; Sampsa Puttonen; Sari Kujala; Eeva Ketola; Johanna Tuukkanen; Anna Mari Aalto; Tarja Heponiemi

doi:10.1186/s12911-019-0891-z

Experienced time pressure and stress: Electronic health records usability and information technology competence play a role

Tuulikki Vehko^*
, Hannele Hyppönen
, Sampsa Puttonen
, Sari Kujala
, Eeva Ketola
, Johanna Tuukkanen
, Anna Mari Aalto
, Tarja Heponiemi

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

100 Citations (Scopus)

283 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Background: Electronic health records (EHRs) are an elementary part of the work of registered nurses (RNs) in healthcare. RNs are the largest group of healthcare workers, and their experiences with EHRs and their informatics competence play a crucial role in a fluent workflow. The present study examined EHR usability factors and nurses' informatics competence factors related to self-reported time pressure and psychological distress. Methods: A nationwide survey was conducted for working-age registered nurses in 2017. The study sample included 3607 nurses (5% men) in Finland. The association of age, sex, employment sector, EHR usability factors, and nurses' informatics competence factors with time pressure and psychological distress were examined with analyses of covariance. Results: The EHR usability factors that were associated with high time pressure were low EHR reliability and poor user-friendliness. Regarding the nurses' informatics competence factors, only low e-Care competence was associated with time pressure. Of the EHR usability factors, low EHR reliability and low support for cooperation were associated with high psychological distress. Of the nurses' informatics competence factors, low e-Care competence was associated with high psychological distress. Conclusions: Unreliability and poor user-friendliness of EHRs seem to be prominent sources of time pressure and psychological distress among registered nurses. User-friendly EHR systems and digital tools in healthcare are needed. Nurses' competence to use eHealth tools to tailor patient care should be strengthened through organizational and regional actions. For example, house rules about how to use eHealth tools and instructions on common practices in cooperation with other organizations could be useful.

Original language	English
Article number	160
Pages (from-to)	1-9
Journal	BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Volume	19
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0891-z
Publication status	Published - 14 Aug 2019
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This study was supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund (project 116104), the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland (project 303604), and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (project 112241). None of them had any role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data or in the writing.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Electronic health records
Information systems
Registered nurses
Time pressure, psychological distress, GHQ, general health questionnaire

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s12911-019-0891-zFinal published version, 638 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Experienced time pressure and stress: Electronic health records usability and information technology competence play a role",

abstract = "Background: Electronic health records (EHRs) are an elementary part of the work of registered nurses (RNs) in healthcare. RNs are the largest group of healthcare workers, and their experiences with EHRs and their informatics competence play a crucial role in a fluent workflow. The present study examined EHR usability factors and nurses' informatics competence factors related to self-reported time pressure and psychological distress. Methods: A nationwide survey was conducted for working-age registered nurses in 2017. The study sample included 3607 nurses (5\% men) in Finland. The association of age, sex, employment sector, EHR usability factors, and nurses' informatics competence factors with time pressure and psychological distress were examined with analyses of covariance. Results: The EHR usability factors that were associated with high time pressure were low EHR reliability and poor user-friendliness. Regarding the nurses' informatics competence factors, only low e-Care competence was associated with time pressure. Of the EHR usability factors, low EHR reliability and low support for cooperation were associated with high psychological distress. Of the nurses' informatics competence factors, low e-Care competence was associated with high psychological distress. Conclusions: Unreliability and poor user-friendliness of EHRs seem to be prominent sources of time pressure and psychological distress among registered nurses. User-friendly EHR systems and digital tools in healthcare are needed. Nurses' competence to use eHealth tools to tailor patient care should be strengthened through organizational and regional actions. For example, house rules about how to use eHealth tools and instructions on common practices in cooperation with other organizations could be useful.",

keywords = "Electronic health records, Information systems, Registered nurses, Time pressure, psychological distress, GHQ, general health questionnaire",

author = "Tuulikki Vehko and Hannele Hypp{\"o}nen and Sampsa Puttonen and Sari Kujala and Eeva Ketola and Johanna Tuukkanen and Aalto, \{Anna Mari\} and Tarja Heponiemi",

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AU - Vehko, Tuulikki

AU - Hyppönen, Hannele

AU - Puttonen, Sampsa

AU - Kujala, Sari

AU - Ketola, Eeva

AU - Tuukkanen, Johanna

AU - Aalto, Anna Mari

AU - Heponiemi, Tarja

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ER -

Experienced time pressure and stress: Electronic health records usability and information technology competence play a role

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

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