Development of an observational tool to measure nurses' information needs.

Nurses collect, communicate and store patient information needed for care through verbal, handwritten and electronic information sources. However, the specific categories of nurses' information needs for the care of hospitalized patients remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to identify the categories of nurses' information needs and develop an observational tool to measure the information needs through available information sources. We analyzed qualitative data from interview transcripts and conducted direct observations of nurses to identify a total of 17 categories of nurses' information needs when caring for hospitalized patients. Once identified, we developed an observational tool to quantitatively measure the category of information need, whether the information need was collected and communicated, and through which information source. Future studies will be able to measure the gathering and communication of information needs through direct observation.