Health IT May Actually Make Nurses' Jobs Harder

Some nurses are complaining that health IT is adding to their administrative burden and reducing the amount of time they have available to spend with their patients. The Baltimore Sun reports that as hospitals increasingly rely on technology, nurses spend more and more of their time in front of computers, entering data and performing administrative tasks. This may be because the systems are not fully integrated or streamlined, forcing nurses to enter information multiple times using "clunky" interfaces.

Younger nurses who grew up with computers find the transition to health IT easier. Some even embrace the technology as "intuitive" and say it makes them more efficient. But others are more wary. It may be that nurses need more time - and more help with adjusting to computerized systems. Also, greater uniformity among hospital IT systems across the nation might make it easier to educate nurses on new technology - so that they have more time to spend with their patients.