Usefulness of nursing documentations in multi-professional collaboration and information exchange in Finland

International Conference on Nursing & Emergency Medicine

December 02-04, 2013 Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Anne Kuusisto, Pirkko Nykänen and Johanna Kaipio

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Efficient collaboration and information exchange among care givers during patient´s hospital period is essential for the high quality and safety of patient care. Multi-professional collaboration in health care between nurses and physicians requires that the nursing documentations support communication and fluent information exchange. In Finland, nursing documents are produced, stored and presented using a nursing documentation system (NDS), which is part of an electronic health record (EHR) system. Applied nursing model is based on a nursing process, a nationally defined nursing core data set and the Finnish Care Classification (FinCC). This study is part of the research where we evaluated the feasibility and usability of the structured nursing documentation model and four widely used NDSs. One perspective in evaluation was the study of the usefulness of the NDSs in multi-professional collaboration and information exchange. The materials were collected with thematic interviews with seven physicians and 20 nurses in spring 2010 in the clinical contexts of primary, specialized and private healthcare. The results show that nursing documentation model and NDSs supported poorly for multi-professional care and information exchange. Physicians found nursing documentations difficult to access and to understand. Information was documented as small, separate items and thus a comprehensive picture of the patient?s situation was not present. Collaborative care aspects were either not supported. In the future, better utilization of information requires that the nursing documentation model and NDSs are designed to support not just documentation but also information exchange and utilization.

Biography :

Anne Kuusisto is a registered Nurse, completed her M.N.Sc. in 2003 at the University of Turku and her M.S.Sc. in 2012 at the University of Tampere in Finland. She also has vocational teacher qualification. Now, she is working as project co-coordinator at the Satakunta Hospital District in Finland. The Finnish Nurses Association has granted her as the first in Finland specific competencies of nursing informatics management in December 2012.