Perceptions of electronic health record system (EHRs) among nurses at Sir Muhammad Sanusi Specialist Hospital Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

Background/Objective: Electronic health record system is aimed at improving the delivery of healthcare and ensuring that care given to an individual by various healthcare providers from many different settings in their lifetime is maintained in a single electronic record and readily available. The study determined the perception of nurses toward electronic health record system in a secondary healthcare system in Kano. Methods/Design: The study deployed cross-sectional design using a structured questionnaire. Result: The result shows that participants have positive attitude (63.6%) toward EHRs, but 56% still felt EHRs might not be fully accepted by all healthcare providers and that the switch to EHRs at all levels of healthcare setting is not feasible by year 2020 (80%). In addition, a good number (55%) was of the opinion that full transfer of current paper-based documents is impossible. Conclusion: Kano State healthcare system is enriched with nurses, who are quite abreast of EHRs and health IT and are willing to embrace the technology in their workflow. This may therefore indicate unlikely resistance to the emerging technologies though with some reservations. The study therefore recommends the deployment of electronic health records in the hospital and other health facilities.