Experience and nurses use of computerised decision support systems.

Computerised clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are increasingly being used by nurses to support their clinical practice. One of the factors which may affect how nurses use technology such as CDSS may be their clinical experience. This paper uses data from a wider study examining how nurses use CDSS to examine the role of experience in nurses' use of CDSS. Data was drawn from two sources; a secondary analysis of interviews from a study examining nurses' use of CDSS in telephone triage and the analysis of observations and interviews of nurses using CDSS in two case sites. Two themes arose from the analysis of the data; the integration of knowledge from CDSS and how experience affects CDSS use. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to our knowledge of the characteristics of the development of expertise in nursing.