About Nursing and Digital Technology
We are based in the Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work - School of Health Sciences at Manchester University. With the leadership of Professor Dawn Dowding we have been researching the role of digital technologies in nursing care. Our research has been funded by The Burdett Trust for Nursing.
The pandemic has led to the rapid adoption of technologies to support patient care, with nurses playing a significant role in the successful deployment and use of digital healthcare technologies. However, there has been limited in-depth analysis of nurses’ views and experiences of using technology, and the impact this adoption has had on nurses’ practice and provision of patient care. The potential sustainability and benefits of these technologies to the health care system and patients is unclear. Therefore, this study will generate an overview of learning gained from the pandemic related to technology innovation in nursing practice that can be used across health care organisations to inform future practice innovation.
The focus of our research has been to examine:
- What digital technologies have been introduced into acute, primary care and community social care organisations during the COVID-19 crisis that are led and implemented by nurses to support patient care delivery?
- What are the similarities and differences in digital technologies introduced across organisations?
- What are the barriers and facilitators to the adoption of digital technologies?
- What impact has the implementation of these digital technologies had on nurses’ care processes, care delivery outcomes and patient experience?
In Phase one of our study, we conducted a scoping survey of nurses working in acute, primary care, health and community social care organisations, to identify the digital technologies that have been adopted during the pandemic, what their purpose is, and if/how the impact of their introduction to practice and patient/service user outcomes has been evaluated.
Phase two consisted of in-depth interviews with 21 UK-based nurses to explore in more detail their views and experiences of using digital technologies during the pandemic.