Identifying barriers for implementation of computer based nursing documentation.

This study was undertaken in the planning phase for the introduction of a comprehensive computer based nursing documentation system at Erlangen University Hospital. There, we expect a wide range of difficult organizational changes, because the nurses currently neither used computer based nursing documentation nor did they follow strongly the nursing process model within paper based documentation. Thus we were eager to recognize potential pitfalls early and to identify potential barriers for digital nursing documentation. In a questionnaire study we surveyed all German university hospitals for their experience with the implementation of computer based nursing documentation implementation. We received answers from 11 of the 23 hospitals. Furthermore we performed a questionnaire study about expectations and fears among the nurses of four pilot wards of our hospital. Most respondents stated a positive attitude towards the nursing process documentation, but many respondents note technical (e.g. bad performance of the software) and organizational barriers (e.g. lack of time).