Eighty-Six Percent of Nurses Link Information Technology to Improved Patient Care According to CDW Healthcare's Nurses Talk Tec
September 06 2006 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
CDW Healthcare, part of the public sector subsidiary of CDW
Corporation (NASDAQ:CDWC), and a leading provider of technology
products and services to healthcare organizations, today announced
the results of Nurses Talk Tech(TM), a survey of more than 550
nursing professionals from across the United States. The study
reveals that nurses overwhelmingly validate the potential of
information technology (IT) to improve patient care, but cite
significant challenges to realizing its full potential. "In this
first-of-its-kind study of how nurses view the technology they use
on the job, we learned that those on the front lines of care
delivery embrace the power of information technology to help
improve the speed and quality of patient care," said Bob Rossi,
general manager for CDW Healthcare. "Nurses even went so far as to
say that the quality of a medical facility's technology is a
deciding factor for where they will work." In the survey, 86
percent of respondents indicated that IT has the potential to
improve the quality of patient care. The use of technology allows
nurses to access patient information more quickly, improve
efficiency, reduce the potential for errors and access timely and
relevant patient information. Looking at challenges, nurses cite
poor integration/interoperability, regular system failures, limited
access to information and applications, and lack of training as the
most frustrating elements of using IT on the job. Technology also
appears to be an integral part of the nursing environment, with 44
percent of respondents indicating they spend three or more hours a
day using IT for various functions. Sixty-nine percent of
respondents use email regularly; 60 percent use IT to document
electronic medical records; and half of all respondents use it to
order patient tests and prescriptions through computer-based
patient order entry (CPOE). Nearly 90 percent of respondents work
on desktop systems and 21 percent use notebooks. Only nine percent
use a handheld device and three percent use a tablet PC. Nurses
seeking employment clearly attach a value to healthcare
organizations' level of IT adoption, a factor that tech-savvy
employers can use to their advantage when recruiting in the highly
competitive nursing market. Sixty-four percent of respondents
indicated that IT is an important consideration when deciding where
to work, and 26 percent said they would not consider working in a
healthcare organization without it. According to research from
2005, 49 percent of employers report that nursing positions were
harder to fill in 2005, resulting in an anticipated shortfall of
265,212 nurses nationwide by 2010. In that environment, the ability
of healthcare organizations to attract and retain qualified nursing
staff is profoundly important. The study also showed that the
majority of nurses want more IT training. When asked what would
have the greatest impact on improving how they use IT in their job,
55 percent responded that more professional training and/or
professional development would help. Despite the strong interest in
professional development, healthcare organizations do not appear to
invest heavily in IT training for their nurses. Nearly 30 percent
of respondents received no IT training in the last year, and 56
percent received between one and eight hours, most often delivered
by a member of the facility's in-house IT team. Interestingly,
respondents who received no IT training, or between one and eight
hours of training, were more likely to indicate they do not have
time to use IT than respondents who received more extensive
training. Nurses are more likely to be consulted in the IT
selection and/or implementation process than physicians, but are
still likely to be excluded from these initiatives. Thirty-six
percent of survey respondents indicated that nurse managers and/or
staff nurses are involved in the selection and/or implementation
process compared to 14 percent who indicated physicians are
consulted. Interestingly, respondents from organizations not
involving nurses in the IT selection/implementation process are
more than twice as likely to say that IT diminishes or does not
improve the quality of care than nurses with facilities that do
involve them. Methodology Nurses Talk Tech findings are based on an
online survey of 559 nurses working in a wide range of settings,
including large hospitals/medical centers, clinics/physician
offices, long-term care facilities, home care, visiting nursing
associations, public health organizations, insurance companies, and
corporations. The study has a +/-4.09 percent margin of error at a
95% confidence level. For more information, please visit
www.cdw.com/healthcare. About CDW Healthcare CDW Healthcare, part
of the public sector subsidiary of CDW Corporation (NASDAQ:CDWC),
is a leading provider of technology products and services focused
exclusively on healthcare organizations. Working in partnership
with customers ranging from small rural providers to large and
complex integrated delivery networks, CDW Healthcare responds with
a sense of urgency to customer technology needs, delivering
best-in-class solutions from top-name brands such as IBM, HP,
Cisco, Microsoft, Planar, EMC, Ergotron Symantec, Motion, Lenovo,
NEC, Xerox and Symbol. CDW Healthcare account management teams
build strong customer relationships by responding to customer IT
infrastructure requirements with in-depth advice, technical
expertise and the best technology that the industry has to offer.
For more information about CDW Healthcare offerings, procurement
options, services and solutions, call 1.800.410.4239, or visit the
CDW Healthcare Web site at http://www.cdw.com/healthcare.
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