Clinical Decision Support Systems in Nursing

Abstract

Increasingly, new and extended roles and responsibilities for nurses are being supported through the introduction of clinical decision support systems (CDSS). This chapter provides an overview of research on nurses’ use of CDSS, considers the impact of CDSS on nurse decision making and patient outcomes, and explores the socio-technical factors that impact the use of CDSS. In addition to summarising previous research, both on nurses’ use of CDSS and on use of CDSS more generally, the chapter presents the results of a multi-site case study that explored how CDSS are used by nurses in practice in a range of contexts. The chapter takes a socio-technical approach, exploring the barriers and facilitators to effective CDSS use at a level of the technology itself, the ways people work, and the organisations in which they operate.