What is the nurses' experience of using Electronic Early Warning Scoring System on the ward?

Abstract

Background Recording and monitoring of vital signs is an important part of nursing care in the acute setting. Paper based Early warning scoring charts are inundated with mistakes such as incorrect addition of scores, incomplete charts and infrequent observations being carried out. Electronic early warning scoring system reduce the amount of incomplete charts and decrease patient mortality however, there is some conflicting results in relation to the technology. As nurses are the principal users the implementation phase and the user experiences are two key aspects to ensuring the early warning system is used effectively to improving patient. The aim of this research is to understand the nurse's experiences using electronic early warning scoring system in a general ward Design A Qualitative approach (hermeneutic phenomenological) to generate rich data about nurses experiences. Methods Using a purposeful sampling technique data will be collected by interviewing 10-12 nurses on the ward that use electronic early warning scoring system on their ward. Implications for Practice Data obtained from the proposed study will add to nursing literature in relation to experiences of adopting new technology into a clinical ward. This will aid the future implementation of a EWS system in a ward environment.