Faculty Perceptions of Student Documentation Skills During the Transition from Paper-Based to Electronic Health Records Systems

Nursing faculty perceptions of teaching undergraduate nursing students documentation skills using either paper-based or electronic health record systems were explored in this study. Twenty-five nursing faculty in a large urban public school of nursing were interviewed using a 13-item survey questionnaire. Responses were analyzed using the constant comparative method, and four major themes arose: teaching strategies; learning from experts; road from novice to expert; and legal, ethical, and institutional issues. Results demonstrate how faculty overcome myriad obstacles encountered while teaching clinical documentation processes. Self-efficacy theory, with its emphasis on knowledge, skills, and social context, describes how faculty are modeling behaviors necessary to succeed during this transition from paper to electronic documentation. The school of nursing is integrating the findings from this research to further informatics integration across the curricula, and ongoing research is planned to investigate issues of self-efficacy and student and clinical staff perceptions of teaching-learning clinical documentation.