Factors Influencing Nurse's Readiness to Implement Electronic Health Records

Personnel readiness is the major factor for implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR). On the other hand، nurses play an important role to delivery of care. This study aimed to determine factors influencing nurses’ readiness to implement EHR. This descriptive - cross sectional study was conducted on the nurses in the teaching hospital affiliated to Golestan University of Medical Sciences in 2013. The data was collected by a valid and reliable structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed using Descriptive statistics. Data analysis indicated that the factor of perception and awareness of the characteristics and advantages of EHR (4. 76±0. 45) had a highest score، whereas the factor of ensuring the security and confidentiality in the EHR (4. 21±0. 81) and participation in the design and implementation phase of EHR (4. 29±0. 71) had the lowest score. The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that most nurses believe that awareness of benefits and understanding of EHR concepts، increases their readiness to implement EHR. Thus، this issue should be considered by policy makers of information technologies.