Personality Traits Predict Nurse Acceptance of Mobile EMRs

As HIT leaders know well, clinical personnel have a wide range of responses to EMRs, ranging from enthusiastic adoption to outright panic. In most cases, hospitals can’t predict which doctors and nurses will need extra support and which will be power users until they roll out their EMR.

However, a new study suggests that by examining nurse attitudes, the HIT team can get some idea ahead of time which will jump on board with mobile EMRs and which will hang back.

Key personality traits can predict which nurses are more likely to accept and adopt EMRs, according to a new study appearing in a FierceEMR piece.

The study, which appeared in BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making, analyzed a questionnaire filled out by 665 nurses to compute a “Technology Readiness Index.”  In so doing the researchers broke out a series of personality traits that impact on whether nurses see mobile EMRs as easy to use and useful.

Researchers concluded that four traits in particular — optimistic, innovative, secure and uncomfortable with technology — had a meaningful impact on their acceptance of technology, according to Fierce EMR:

* Optimistic nurses were more likely to see mobile EMRs as useful and easy to use
* Innovative nurses saw EMRs as being easy to use, but not necessarily useful
* Those who were insecure or technology-challenged saw the EMR negatively

According to the study write-up, researchers concluded that continuous educational programs aimed at increasing IT literacy should be provided for nurses. It also recommends that hospitals recruit, either internally or externally, more optimistic nurses as product champions for the mobile EMR.

Of course, figuring out the personality types of  nurses en masse isn’t practical in most situation. After all, most hospital IT administrators don’t have the time to do a scientific study prior to their launch, especially if they’re doing a multi-layered mobile launch using new tools and introducing new requirements. But it doesn’t hurt to know, informally at least, which types of nurses are likely to be able to lead the mobile EMR charge.