Restrictions on Nursing Students' Electronic Health Information Access

Abstract

Background Restrictions on students' use of electronic health information have been anecdotally reported as a threat to clinical learning, development of informatics competency, and adherence to personal health information privacy laws. However, evidence on which informatics education and policy strategies can be designed is lacking. Purpose This study describes the scope of nursing students' access to and use of electronic health information systems as reported by clinical instructors. Methods Clinical faculty (n = 193) in prelicensure programs from 25 states completed the online survey. Results Students are often restricted in retrieving patient health information, charting assessment data and delivered care, and using medication administration systems. Students alternatively use faculty or staff nurses' system security access. Conclusions Results suggest the need for critical review of nursing curriculum related to informatics competency and clinical site health records access policies.

Academic Electronic Health Records in Undergraduate Nursing Education: Mixed Methods Pilot Study

“…Nagle et al [ 5 ] identified that teaching students about the use of EHRs is challenging in practice settings because there are few opportunities for students to access or use fully functional EHR systems in health care facilities. These findings are congruent with our findings and those in the general literature [ 11 , 34 ]. Nagle et al [ 5 ] also highlighted the need for an affordable EHR sandbox that could be used in simulation laboratories to teach students how to integrate these tools as they learn other clinical skills.…”

“…They indicated that opportunities for electronic documentation will not only strengthen their communication skills but also enhance their critical thinking skills and their understanding of informatics concepts. It could ease their transition to using advanced technology in the work setting, which is congruent with findings from previous research [ 11 , 47 ].…”

“…The results of this study and other research confirm that students recognize gaps in their informatics preparedness to meet workplace requirements regarding the use of electronic tools to support nurses' work, particularly for data management and electronic charting [5,6,11,16,42]. Uniquely, in our study, students and educators provided suggestions for improving the DocuCare platform.…”

“…This is particularly important given the growing concerns regarding the lack of preparedness in using health information systems among graduating students once they join the workplace [6][7][8][9][10]. However, teaching students about EHRs presents challenges for most schools of nursing, primarily because of the limited EHR training opportunities within practice settings and the complexity of educating a large number of students in busy and often complex clinical environments [5,[11][12][13].…”

Stakeholder perceptions of the efficacy, barriers, and facilitators of telemental health clinical experiences during COVID for nurse practitioner students

“…Although the lack of access to patient information through the electronic health record was perceived as the second greatest barrier to student learning by faculty, this can occur in the clinic setting as well. Access to the electronic health record for health professions' students has been cited as a barrier to learning, but due to the difficulty in onboarding students to obtain access as well as privacy issues, this remains a challenge (ACS, 2018; Hansbrough et al, 2020).…”