Personal Digital Assistants Adoption in Healthcare: a Nurses' Case Study

摘要

Recent reports show that Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are being widely used in healthcare and their level of use is expected to rise rapidly. However, it seems that PDAs adoption is not experienced in the same way by all types of medical workers, in particular nurses. Even tough there is some evidence pointing to some barriers for PDAs adoption by nurses, there exists little empirical investigation that explains how the adoption occurs within the context of daily nurse practices and with a longitudinal perspective. This work presents the results of a technology adoption case study, carried out with a group of nurses of a public hospital. We identify PDAs critical adoption factors such as training, previous use of technology, language, fears, as they are experienced by our informants. In contrast with previous studies, our results highlight the importance of studying adoption as a multi-stage phenomenon as critical factors become more or less relevant at different stages. We discuss the implications of our findings for the successful introduction of PDAs in nursing practices.