RIS ID
17752
Abstract
Information technology (IT) solutions have the potential to free carers in long-term care facilities from well-known problems with burdensome paper-documentation, allow them more direct care-time with clients and improve the quality of nursing records. However, to date, little scientific evidence is available to support this idea. Besides the concern about return on investment, a big barrier for the slow uptake of IT solutions in long-term care1 is scepticism by managers about the capacity and willingness of older carers, most of them women, to use computers and the uncertainty about the potential change associated with introducing a new system. To my knowledge, no detailed study of carers’ satisfaction with electronic documentation in nursing homes has been conducted. Research appears to be lacking on this important area that directly relates to the quality of life for an increasing number of elderly who will live in nursing homes.
Publication Details
This letter was originally published as Yu, P, Electronic versus paper-based nursing documentation systems: the carers weigh in, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 54(10), 2006, 1625-1626. Copyright Blackwell 2006. Original journal available here.