Managers and student nurses at odds over smartphone use: study

“You would have to pry it from my cold dead hands.”

This was one of the comments shared by the participants of a study on the views of nurse managers and student nurses concerning the use of smartphones and tablets at the bedside.

The research revealed the two groups have conflicting views on the technology’s use in clinical settings.

Published in Nurse Education in Practice, the study involved semi-structured interviews with 13 New Zealand student nurses, aged 25–35 years, and 5 nurse managers, aged 45–55 years.

The authors found that despite both cohorts using the devices as part of their work, the nurse managers interviewed did not approve of student nurses using personally owned handheld referencing technology, such as smartphones, to inform clinical decisions.

Some of their key concerns were safety, security of data and ethical issues.

Student nurse participants said they were unlikely to stop using what they perceive to be a practical and useful tool for novice practice.

Nursing Review sits down with lead author George McNally, a lecturer at NorthTec, a tertiary education provider in northern New Zealand, to discuss the concerns of the two groups and the problems that may arise from these differing points of view.

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