Development and Assessment of Computerized Software for Nursing Process: a Step toward Promotion of Nursing Education and Care

  Abstract     Introduction : Electronic technology has been developed in health system like other areas. Application of electronic software for nursing process can facilitate this service. Foreign software cannot be an appropriate one for domestic use in terms of its language, clinical situations, cultural factors, and social variables. As a result, the aim of this study is to design and assess the local nursing process computerized software.   Methods : This study was conducted in two phases of software design and assessment. The first phase was implemented in 4 stages of “developing the steps of nursing process in accordance software”, “algorithm design”, “test” and “final revision”. The second phase included a pilot study with participation of 20 students and nurses performed in ICU ward of Ghaem hospital in Mashhad. These individuals performed nursing process on three clients using the newly designed software. Then their opinions were taken using a validated and reliable researcher-made questionnaire for assessing the software. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and mann withney.   Results: First phase of the study encompassed designing the software software menus included data base menu, patient's background information, registration of nursing process, setting, alarm, and help. In second phase, the results of pilot study showed that 81.3% of participants rated software as good or very good. The main advantages of the software, according to 90% of nurses, related to accuracy and preciseness of data compared to handwritten documents and facilitating the arrangement of client’s problems and according to 100% of the students, simplicity, sharing the labor, assessing the warning signs, and avoiding errors. The average of software evaluation scores by students was (84.3±5.83) out of 100 which is significantly higher than that of nurses (73.2±1.13, p =0.02).   Conclusion : Development of the local nursing software in accordance with our health system was feasible and associated with satisfaction among nurses and students. Application of this software leads to increased accuracy, decreased error, and shared labor that are counted as factors promoting patient care services.