Introducing handheld computers into home care.

In the fall of 2009, Bayshore Home Health (BHH) provided tablet computers to 75 home care nurses working in Barrie, Ont. The devices were equipped with an embedded evidence-based documentation system and loaded with decision-making supports such as drug reference databases. The technology was designed to facilitate client assessment, care planning and evaluation at the point of care. This article documents the experience of implementing handheld computers in a home care setting and presents the lessons learned from the perspectives of the BHH executive team and front-line nurses. These groups were asked to complete online surveys, developed by the BHH research and evaluation steering committee, to assess the impact of the implementation on the organization, its nurses and its clients. An analysis of the feedback indicated support for the implementation. However, both groups had concerns about the capability of the hardware and software to meet the needs of decentralized home care nurses working in both urban and rural areas. Front-line nurses also identified the impact of handheld computers on the time required for charting and on the nurse-client relationship as areas of concern.