Start Date

11-12-2016 12:00 AM

Description

Timely documentation of administered medications is enabled by electronic medical records (EMR) systems, but also made more difficult due to increased task interdependencies in EMR-enabled medication administration practice. We investigate how clinicians can use their advice networks to accomplish timely EMR documentation. We consider the novel social structures through which nurses actively solicit advice (“seeking-to-learn” network) versus actively contribute unsolicited insights (“seeking-to-teach” network) in the course of patient-care work. Results from 2-level hierarchical linear modeling showed that while clinicians are better off “seeking-to-learn” from positions of brokerage/gatekeeping over requests for advice (betweenness centrality), they are better off “seeking-to-teach” from positions where their indirect contacts are within relatively close reach (closeness centrality) and their direct contacts are highly influential or popular (Bonacich Power centrality). Our study contributes by providing a more nuanced conceptualization of advice networks as a novel way of addressing a major information systems issue in healthcare.

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Dec 11th, 12:00 AM

Seeking to Learn versus Seeking to Teach: Network Position and Timely Electronic Documentation in Healthcare Practice

Timely documentation of administered medications is enabled by electronic medical records (EMR) systems, but also made more difficult due to increased task interdependencies in EMR-enabled medication administration practice. We investigate how clinicians can use their advice networks to accomplish timely EMR documentation. We consider the novel social structures through which nurses actively solicit advice (“seeking-to-learn” network) versus actively contribute unsolicited insights (“seeking-to-teach” network) in the course of patient-care work. Results from 2-level hierarchical linear modeling showed that while clinicians are better off “seeking-to-learn” from positions of brokerage/gatekeeping over requests for advice (betweenness centrality), they are better off “seeking-to-teach” from positions where their indirect contacts are within relatively close reach (closeness centrality) and their direct contacts are highly influential or popular (Bonacich Power centrality). Our study contributes by providing a more nuanced conceptualization of advice networks as a novel way of addressing a major information systems issue in healthcare.