Enhancing Prelicensure Nursing Students' Use of an Electronic Health Record

• Utilizing an academic electronic health record (EHR) facilitates informatics competency in prelicensure BSN students.
• Exposing students to the EHR within a high-fidelity simulation experience significantly improves their navigation speed (p < .0001) without decreasing their accuracy (p = .141).
• Incorporating the EHR within high-fidelity simulation moved students from novice to competent.

BackgroundNursing students must develop competency in the use of electronic health records (EHRs). This pilot investigates the impact of using a simulated EHR during high-fidelity human simulation.MethodPrelicensure students were evaluated pre- and postsimulation on accuracy and time to complete an EHR-based scavenger hunt. Focus groups evaluated student perception of the experience.ResultsNavigation time improved significantly (p < .0001) without decline in accuracy (p = .141). Student focus group comments support movement in level of proficiency from novice to competent.ConclusionIntegration of a simulated EHR into high-fidelity simulation improves student speed while maintaining accuracy in the utilization of health care technologies.