Nursing process documentation--effects on workload and quality when using a computer program and a key word model for nursing documentation.

In 1993 the federation of County Councils commissioned Spri to carry out a broadly based study aimed at investigating individualised patient care as described in the notes kept at various care units using computers to support documentation of the nursing process. The wards involved in the study represented various disciplines such as surgery, obstetrics, internal medicine, geriatrics and psychiatry. During the study period certain measures designed to improve the documentation were implemented i.e. a special computer program and structured nursing documentation following the VIPS-model. Interviews with staff at the units confirm that the introduction of computers, in combination with the structure of the VIPS-model and training in nursing documentation, has made changes possible to working procedures and brought greater goal orientation to the activity of care. The overall examination of the nursing entries in the patients' notes showed that the language has improved. The entries were to a greater extent expressed clearly and distinctly.