Experiences of professional nurses with regard to accessing information at the point-of-care via mobile-computing devices at a public hospital

摘要

Mobile computing devices are capable of changing how healthcare is delivered in the future, since they aim to merge and integrate all services into one device that is versatile, customisable, and portable. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of professional nurses with regard to accessing information at the point-of-care of the patient, in order to develop guidelines that could assist other professional nurses with implementing the mobile computing device for accessing information at the point-of-care of patients. To achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative, explorative, descriptive, and contextual design was used to conduct this research – to gain an understanding of how the professional nurses experienced accessing information at the point-of-care via mobile computing devices. The study was conducted among the professional nurses employed at the public hospital, who were trained and provided with the mobile computing device for accessing information at the point-of-care for more than two years. In-depth interviewing was conducted to obtain the data. Data analysis was done using Tesch‘s method to make sense out of text and data. Four themes were identified, namely, the professional nurses‘ expression of various experiences regarding the training received; the need for support in implementing the mobile computing device; the accessing of information at the point-of-care as beneficial for educational purposes; and the accessing of information at the point-of-care as beneficial to patient care. Two main guidelines were developed. The study concludes with recommendations made with regard to the areas of nursing practice, education and research. Throughout the study, the researcher abided by the ethical considerations. The aspects of trustworthiness implemented in this study, included dependability, credibility, transferability and confirmability (Holloway & Wheeler, 2010:298).