Exploring nurses’ confirmed expectations regarding health IT: A phenomenological study

• We report nurses’ experience of new health ITs implemented in nursing practice.
• Nurses’ perceptions of health IT vary according to level of expectation.
• Levels of expectation: personal, technical, environmental, and organizational.
• Levels of expectation may be used to prioritize health IT practice solutions.

Health information technology (IT) benefits both patients and providers with respect to health care quality and perceived usefulness. Although existing research provides a preliminary understanding of nurses’ perception of health IT, perceptions do not guide actions. This phenomenological study explored nurses’ perceptions regarding electronic health records and bar code medication administration four months post implementation on a medical–surgical unit in an academic medical center. Ten staff nurses (8 females and 2 males) participated. We categorized the results into five themes from personal-level to organizational-level confirmed expectations: (1) nurses’ interaction with computer, (2) nursing performance regarding task accomplishment, (3) unit-specific teamwork, (4) interdisciplinary teamwork, and (5) quality of care. We discovered that effective health IT must be congruent with nursing expectations. IT professionals, nursing and organizational leaders may use findings to structure an environment supportive of effective health IT in nursing practice.