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From plans to planning: the case of nursing plans

Published: 04 November 2007 Publication History

Abstract

Drawing on a critical perspective stemming from socially informed studies of medicine, we analyze an ongoing effort to establish electronic nursing plans at the university hospital of central Norway (St. Olav's hospital). We argue for an alternative interpretation of the relative lack of success to date of making the nurses use the nursing plans. Rather than a preoccupation with the singular artifact the - plan - we emphasize the process of planning as a collective, ongoing and heterogeneous achievement. Our perspective on plans implies that they should be recognized as more of a network and less a singular artifact.

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Andrew Brooks

How should information technology (IT) support hospital-based nursing care__?__ Computerization of nursing plans should eliminate redundancy, and provide the benefits normally associated with an information management system. At one Norwegian hospital, however, the use of electronic nursing plans was not as anticipated. To explain why, examples are used to illustrate how nursing care is not simply the act of creating a single artifact (the plan) and following it. The examples are drawn from a comprehensive ethnographic study, involving 450 hours of observation, 19 interviews, and various other materials. Planning is revealed as an ongoing process, involving information distributed across a network of people and artifacts, and in which redundancy plays a positive role. Figure 1 shows how information is copied from several sources when creating a patient report. Figure 2 shows how a whiteboard is used to provide an easily accessible ward overview. The authors conclude that the nursing plan is simply one node in the network of people and artifacts, where the planning of nursing care takes place, and that it is a mistake to try and condense this planning into one single artifact. While the main conclusion appears sound, some questions are left unanswered. How often was redundancy observed to help prevent errors in care__?__ Did any nurse suggest ways of improving care__?__ This paper provides strong insights into nursing practice, and presents a convincing argument for the exploitation rather than the elimination of redundancy. As such, it is strongly recommended to those developing hospital information management systems. Online Computing Reviews Service

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cover image ACM Conferences
GROUP '07: Proceedings of the 2007 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work
November 2007
422 pages
ISBN:9781595938459
DOI:10.1145/1316624
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 04 November 2007

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Author Tags

  1. cooperation
  2. coordination
  3. formal
  4. healthcare work
  5. informal
  6. nursing
  7. planning
  8. redundancy

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GROUP07
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GROUP07: ACM 2007 International Conference on Supporting Group Work
November 4 - 7, 2007
Florida, Sanibel Island, USA

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  • (2022)Becoming a Guest: On Proximity and Distance in Mental Health Home TreatmentComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)10.1007/s10606-022-09456-132:3(645-674)Online publication date: 12-Dec-2022
  • (2018)Knowledge artifacts: the implications of incommensurable dimensions for their designData Technologies and Applications10.1108/DTA-03-2017-001352:1(130-147)Online publication date: 5-Feb-2018
  • (2018)Repetita IuvantComputer Supported Cooperative Work10.1007/s10606-017-9303-z27:3-6(1051-1084)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2018
  • (2018)New Perspectives on PlansComputer Supported Cooperative Work10.1007/s10606-017-9278-927:1(107-148)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2018
  • (2016)"It is Not Because You Have Tools that You Must use Them"Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work10.1145/2957276.2957288(223-233)Online publication date: 13-Nov-2016
  • (2015)Coordination-Artifacts SuitingProceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing10.1145/2675133.2675136(165-178)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2015
  • (2013)Reduction in the use of seclusion by the methodical work approachInternational Journal of Mental Health Nursing10.1111/inm.1203723:2(161-170)Online publication date: 29-Jul-2013
  • (2013)A Review of 25 Years of CSCW Research in HealthcareComputer Supported Cooperative Work10.1007/s10606-012-9168-022:4-6(609-665)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2013
  • (2010)Why the plan doesn't holdProceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work10.1145/1718918.1718977(331-340)Online publication date: 6-Feb-2010
  • (2009)Information Sharing at Multidisciplinary Medical Team MeetingsGroup Decision and Negotiation10.1007/s10726-009-9175-920:4(437-464)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2009
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