Acceptance of hospital nurses toward sensor-based medication systems: A questionnaire survey

Background Sensor-based technologies offer numerous benefits in hospital environments as they can be used (1) to improve efficiency defined processes and (2) to monitor their conduction in order to prevent errors. However, the impact of these technologies on the stakeholders involved such as professional ward nurses is largely unexplored. The early assessment of technology acceptance and user resistance is crucial to anticipate potential conflicts and to improve future implementation success. Objectives To understand the attitudes and intentions of usage of professional ward nurses toward sensor-based medication systems based on an adjusted extended technology acceptance model (TAM2) in a pre-implementation stage. Design A scenario-based research design was used in a nation-wide empirical study. Settings Nurses of Australian associations/unions evaluated a scenario of a sensor-based medication support system. Participants A randomly selected sample of 579 professional ward nurses participated in this study. Methods Data were collected using an online questionnaire and explored using hierarchical regression analysis. Results The majority of nurses intend to use the system but 25% – not voluntarily. 8% reject the system entirely. In assessing the nurses’ perceived usefulness, image, demonstrability, qualitative and quantitative overload as well as personal innovativeness were found to have a significant impact. Qualitative and quantitative overload also have a significant negative effect on personal innovativeness. Regarding the nurses’ usage intention, we identified a significant negative influence of subjective norm, moderated by experience and a positive effect of perceived usefulness on intention to use the system. Image, qualitative and quantitative overload as well as personal innovativeness are significantly influenced by age. Conclusions Our findings support a successful implementation of medication support systems in hospitals by stating acceptance drivers an