A Comparison of Students' Perception on Effectiveness of Integrating Electronic Health Records into Simulation in Undergraduate Nursing Program

Zhang, Weihua

Background: Electronic Health Records (EHR) make real time point of care efficient. Interdisciplinary teams can view the most updated patients’ progress thus ensuring safe and quality care. We implemented EHR into our existing simulation exercise and attempted to see a change in students’ perception on effectiveness of the simulation in our undergraduate nursing program.

Purpose: The main purpose of this implementation is to assess the difference on simulation effectiveness perceived by the students in the group with and without utilizing EHR in simulation exercise.

Method: Cross-sectional design and convenience sampling were used to compare the effectiveness perception data collected from the students after the simulation in these two groups. The difference in perception was compared by using the t-test.

Result: There is no statistically significant change in students’ perception (t = .79, p = .42) between the simulation (SIM) and the simulation with EHR integration (SIMEHR) group. The total score of the first 13 survey questions (which were the same questions used for both years) was used for the analysis. The total score of the first 13 questions was 34.07 in the SIMEHR group and 33.42 in the SIM group with 106 out of 110 participants in the survey in the SIMEHR group versus only 36 out of 99 students responded to the survey in the SIM group from the previous year. The confidence in providing care and knowing the patient by utilizing electronic health records has been reported as between somewhat agree to strongly agree.

Discussion and implication: Integrating EHR into simulation did not significantly change students’ perception on simulation effectiveness. The implication from this study is that the integration of EHR into the simulation can be accomplished with careful prior planning with emphasis on introducing the strategies that enhance students’ ability to get familiarized with the EHR system. Positively comments on students’ ability and confidence in using the EHR and providing patient care further support this implication.