Nurse educators' and students' experiences on electronic patient records: A multiple-methods study

Background: The storage of patient records in electronic media is one of the most outstanding developments of the 21st century. This transformation in health required the teaching staff and students in nursing to adapt to this change.Objectives: To determine nurse educators' and students' views and experiences about electronic patient records.Methods: A multiple-method approach was used in the study. The research sample consisted of 133 nurse educators and 366 nursing students from three public and three non-profit private universities in Ankara during the fall term of the 2019-2020 academic year. In the quantitative stage, data were collected with a data collection form prepared by the researcher. Data were obtained via semi-structured interviews with 14 nurse educators and 14 students at the qualitative stage. Descriptive statistics (number, percentage) were used to analyze quantitative data, and the content analysis method was used to analyze the qualitative data.Results: 91 % of the nurse educators and 96.4 % of the students stated that they learned about electronic patient records through observation in a clinical setting. >70 % of the participants noted that including subject matters about electronic patient records in the nursing curriculum would be beneficial. In the qualitative phase, most nurse educators and students (n > 9) reported that they could not access the system because they did not have credentials. They stated that their experiences depended on the current users and were limited to observation; therefore, regulations regarding access to electronic patient records should be made.Conclusions: The views and experiences of the nurse educators and students about the electronic medical record system were limited to getting help from observing clinical nurses since they could not be registered users in the system. Therefore, it is recommended to expand the teaching related to electronic patient records in the nursing education program, develop educational software, and make arrangements to provide access to electronic data during clinical applications.