Mobile Devices in the Public Healthcare Sector : Perceptions, Experiences and Expectations of Nursing Care Providers

There are high expectations regarding mobile technology and how it can be used to promote improvements in the quality and efficiency in healthcare. There appears to be a gap between the goals and strategy on the macro level and the micro level experiences of the usage of mobile devices among healthcare professionals. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions, experiences and expectations of nursing care providers at two wards with regards to the recently implemented mobile platform COSMIC Nova Ward and other related IT artefacts. Special emphasis has been on COSMIC Nova Ward Tablet, a part of COSMIC Nova Ward, facilitated in iPad MINIs. It is designed to act as a tool to facilitate the provision of care and has been introduced at both the wards during a pilot project. Even though the two wards are similar in both practice and structure, the pilot project resulted in failure at one of the wards and a relative success at the other. A comparative case study of the perceptions, experiences and expectations of the nursing personnel at the two wards was conducted in order to highlight the differences in the outcomes of the pilot project. By reflexively comparing these with theory, it was concluded that there are several factors other than adequacy of the IT system that determine the outcome of the implementation of a mobile platform in a clinical setting. These findings were then compared with existing legislation and policies, in order to identify potential discrepancies between the nursing personnel’s usage of IT with the regional and national goals and strategy. It was then determined that there needs to be a clear connection between the usage of IT and the goals and strategy within healthcare