Adopting electronic health record system in a health care facility can be faced with a mixed reception by the nurses. Resistance is part of the reception from the staff, and it can be challenging. The nurse facilitator is equipped with the authority to help the facility convince the nursing fraternity on the importance of the EHRs. It is vital for the facilitator to educate and prepare the nurse for the work that is yet to come and help change their mind, attitude and perception about the new technology ( Wiljer et al., 2008) . According to Rogers (2003), the theory of diffusion of technology, five qualities determine individual attitude in the adoption of new technology. As a nurse facilitator in a health Centre in New York, I would apply Rogers’s theory to convince the nursing team about the importance of adopting the EHRS in our clinic.
According to Rogers (2003), an individual must see the relative advantage of the technology that the facility is adopting. The team consuming the innovation must see how it will improve the old ways of doing things. As a nurse facilitator, I would call the nurses in a meeting in my clinic and educate them on the relative advantage that we would acquire by accepting the EHRs. By using the new technology, it would be easier for each nurse to access clinical data compared to the old file system. The nurses’ fraternity would enjoy the process of establishing and maintaining an adequate flow of clinical workflows. Through Adopting the EHRs, we would reduce medical errors, improve the safety of our patients and develop stronger support for clinical decision making.
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Rogers (2003), mentioned that innovation must be compatible with the existing values and practices. The nursing profession is guided by a strict code that aims at maximizing the safety of the patients. EHR has been tested and employed in other large health care facilities, and the innovation has proven to improve nurses' work. Among the core values of nursing is caring, integrity, diversity and human dignity and social justice. The new technology will facilitate the process of making these values more efficient. It is the responsibility of the nurse to ensure that the correct information gets to the clinical officer. EHRS system fits well with our current values and practices, and it will only help improve them.
The new technology must be simple to use according to Rogers (2003). The innovation must have the simplicity attribute. Nurses must see and believe that it is easy to master how to use the new technology. The new technology will only face more resistance if the nurses perceive that it is difficult to learn and use the new system. The facility has set aside enough resources to ensure that each nurse acquires the necessary knowledge that is required to integrate the latest technology in our facility. The system is easy to employ, and there is adequate time for each nurse to learn how to use the system. The facility has explicitly said that it will not adopt the new technology if it proves hard to use. The technology has been adopted in other health providing organizations, and it has proven easy to use and efficient for nurses making the work easy.
` The innovation should have the attribute of trialability. The nurses will have the time to “play around” the new technology and explore the capabilities (Rogers, 2003). The nursing fraternity must be given enough time to learn and to try and use the technology. It is through exploring that each nurse will have the opportunity to experience first-hand use of the technology. Through studying the nurses can see the setbacks, the benefits, and loopholes that the technology might have. The nurses should have ample time to try the new technology unofficially before it is introduced to be used officially ( Kossman & Scheidenhelm, 2008) .
The innovation must have observable results. The nurses must be able to tell the changes that they are experiencing after adopting the technology. The nurses must have evidence that the proposed technique has been successful in other situations. According to Cresswell, Bates, & Sheikh (2013), EHRs has been in use since the 1960s in American health care facilities. It was well accepted in the 1980s and 90s, and since then it has made the nursing profession much easier. Nurses were able to learn computers skills which made patient data storage and retrieval easy.
The nursing team has a responsibility for the successful implementation of new technology. Nurses must accept EHRs before they are adopted in a health Centre because they are the primary users of the system. Accepting involves showing the right attitude to learning and trying the new technology. Nurses must have the right attitude towards innovation. The team also must be willing to try the new technology. It is through such measures that new technology such as EHRs can be implemented in a health organization. Nurses are the primary users of the EHRs and therefore play the most critical role as agents of successful implementation of such technology in a health center ( Moody et al., 2004) .
Available evidence indicates that the use of Information Technology (IT) in the health providing organization can improve the quality and continuity of health services and enhance the safety of patients. An example of such health information technology is the electronic health record. However, the adoption of such technology in a health facility is dependent on the willingness of the staff to accommodate it. Rogers (2003), developed a theory that explained the personal factors that determine the success of the diffusion of innovation. The five attributes include the relative advantage of the innovation, Compatibility of the innovation with the existing values and practices, the simplicity of application, Trialability, and observable results (Rogers, 2003). Nurses must be willing to learn how to use technology and have the right attitude towards it.
References
Cresswell, K. M., Bates, D. W., & Sheikh, A. (2013). Ten critical considerations for the successful implementation and adoption of large-scale health information technology. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , 20 (e1), e9-e13.
Kossman, S. P., & Scheidenhelm, S. L. (2008). Nurses' perceptions of the impact of electronic health records on work and patient outcomes. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing , 26 (2), 69-77.
Moody, L. E., Slocumb, E., Berg, B., & Jackson, D. (2004). Electronic health records documentation in nursing: nurses' perceptions, attitudes, and preferences. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing , 22 (6), 337-344.
Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations [Kindle version]. New York, NY: Free .
Wiljer, D., Urowitz, S., Apatu, E., DeLenardo, C., Eysenbach, G., Harth, T., ... & Canadian Committee for Patient Accessible Health Records (CCPAEHR. (2008). Patient accessible electronic health records: exploring recommendations for successful implementation strategies. Journal of Medical Internet Research , 10 (4).
