| This research focused on exploring the lived experience of the professional nurse adapting and integrating information technology (IT) into her clinical work. This research was conducted using a co-investigator approach that included both collaborative and independent components to the research. The research questions were delineated through the lens of 2 distinct perspectives, (a) the impact of the nurse-IT interaction on the nurse's role in caring for patients and (b) the impact of nurse-IT interaction on social processes and relationships. The specific focus of this researcher was on the nurse-IT interaction in social processes and relationships, including social processes utilized by the individual nurse in relationships with other nurses, and also with the parents of the newborn infants. A qualitative approach was used to examine the experience of nurses in a Newborn ICU as they used clinical information systems and other medical and information technology in their work. A variety of sources were utilized for data collection, including field observations, a review of online and paper documents, a survey of the physical environment and interviews. The nursing and health care information systems literature was reviewed to enhance the understanding of how nurses use IT. Social action theories, including structuration theory provided the main theoretical framework. Nurses clearly have adapted information technology into their work world. Nurses, as social actors are able to demonstrate sense making and structuration with and without the use of the available IT. The nurse continuously assembles the world of the critically ill newborn through her documentation in the electronic medical record as well as through her oral change of shift report to the arriving nurse. She provides a version of this “assembled world” to the parents of the infant. These sense making activities are critical to the nurse successfully accomplishing her work. The structures that are continuously recreated by the actors (nurses) include rules and resources. These structures provide order and routines that help the nurse to rapidly and effectively make sense of the continuous barrage of sensory input that she is faced with. |
