Challenges of technological trends in nursing and coping strategies by nurses at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Background: Technology in nursing has been shown to reduce redundancy and improve efficiency of work. Information Communication and technology (ICT) incorporation in nursing at Kenyatta national Hospital (KNH) has been ongoing for some years yet the uptake seemingly is slow. Challenges that could be associated with the slow incorporation of technology into nursing practice have not been studied.

Objective: To identifying the challenges faced by nurses as a result of technology trends in nursing practice and to establish ways in which nurses are coping with the challenges.

Design: Cross-sectional descriptive

Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital

Participants: Nurses in medical and surgical wards.

Interventions: Simple random sampling was used to select 91 participants after applying fishers’ formula. Purposive sampling was used to select 5 nurse managers as key informants. Data on challenges of technological trends in nursing and coping strategies by nurses was collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Chi-square test was used to determine Association between challenges faced and Electronic health records (EHR) usage levels, also between technological skills and challenges faced at confidence level of 95% at a p-value of 0.05.

Results: Majority of the nurses (62.6%, n = 57) reported experiencing challenges related to technology developments in their departments. The study established that less technological skills among nurses led to more challenges experienced with technology (Chi= 7.2, DF=1, P=0.007). The study also found that reports on more challenges experienced was significantly related to decreased level of use of EHR (Chi= 16.8, DF=3, P=0.001) and (Chi=11.8, DF=3, P=0.008).

Conclusion: Nurses are facing many challenges as a result of technological trends in nursing. Special attention should be paid towards tackling the challenges by including comprehensive training on technological skills and formulating policies on proper handling of the challenges to enhance integration of ICT in nursing.