Nurses Experience with Privacy of Electronic Health Record System - Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore nurses’ experiences on privacy issues in the EHRs among faculty and nurses attending graduate programs. A mixed-method design was conducted using an online survey that combined qualitative and quantitative questionnaires. A convenience sample of 49 participants (34 nursing graduate students and 15 nursing faculty) responded. Quantitative data were descriptively analyzed, and qualitative data were disassembled and grouped according to meaning, reassembled, discussed, and interpreted by the first and second authors. One-fourth of nursing faculty (n=4, 27%) and one-fifth of nurses at graduate programs (n=6, 18%) reported a problem in protecting patients’ personal information with more graduate nurses (n=8, 67%) working in outpatient settings experiencing it than those in medical centers. From qualitative data, three themes emerged (1) mishandling access, (2) data breaches and security, and (3) privacy prevention measures. Privacy protections for EHRs are not consistently implemented and data from smaller clinics may be more at risk than larger medical centers.