The importance of interaction in the implementation of information technology in health care: A symbolic interactionism study on the meaning of accessibility

Abstract

A challenge when groups from different disciplines work together in implementing health information technology (HIT) in a health-care context is that words often have different meanings depending upon work practices, and definition of situations. Accessibility is a word commonly associated with HIT implementation. This study aimed to investigate different meanings of accessibility when implementing HIT in everyday work practice in a health-care context. It focused on the perspective of nurses to highlight another view of the complex relationship between HIT and information in a health-care context. This is a qualitative study influenced by institutional ethnographic. District nurses and student nurses were interviewed. The results indicate that when implementing HIT accessibility depends on working routines, social structures and patient relationship. The findings of the study suggest that interaction needs to take on a more important role when implementing HIT because people act upon words from the interpreted meaning of them. Symbolic interactionism is proposed as a way to set a mutual stage to facilitate an overall understanding of the importance of the meaning of words. There is a need for making place and space for negotiation of the meaning of words when implementing HIT in everyday work practice.

Keywords:

• Co-constructed meaning of words
• everyday work practice
• health information technology
• institutional ethnography
• symbolic interactionism

Acknowledgements

The research reported and planned, is a part of the project ‘Syster Gudrun fullskalelabb i Blekinge för IT i vård och omsorg’ (Nurse Gudrun's full-scale lab in Blekinge for IT in nursing and caring). The project is cooperation around implementing the Swedish strategy for e-health at a regional level. We also acknowledge the participants in the study who shared their experiences with us. We wish them all the best of luck in their future work.

Declaration of Interest: The researchers report no conflict of interest. The researchers alone are responsible for the content and writing of this study. The project received generous financial support from NUTEK (Tillväxtverket, Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth) and Blekinge Research Council.