EMR redesign for pediatric nurses: Design that works

Abstract

Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) have an issue that is not being addressed: poor usability. Clinicians use EMRs daily to check patient charts, order medications, and communicate with patients (Paul, 2015). However, doctors and nurses struggle every day with EMR usability issues, such as an unnecessary number of clicks to complete a medication entry, lack of customization, and visual clutter, to name a few. These issues can lead to potential medical errors, nurse frustration, patient or employee harm, and clinician burnout. While the literature provides a few suggestions to improve usability, little change has been made to the two primary EMR providers (Cerner and Epic).Additionally, the current literature lacks attention on EMR usability with pediatric nurses, instead focusing on doctors, fellows, or residents. Due to the abundant usability issues with EMRs, clinicians are dissatisfied with the program, experiencing symptoms of burnout, and struggling to use these systems. The goal of this thesis is to the answer the question of will a redesign of Cerner’s EMR (PowerChart), increase usability and ease-of-use for pediatric nurses? This research will be done by first, engaging nurses to pinpoint the primary usability issues in PowerChart, second, redesigning the system, and finally, conducting usability reviews on both PowerChart and the redesigned EMR to examine the effect of a redesign on usability for pediatric nurses.