Dive Brief:
- A recent report by Wolters Kluwer Health found that a majority of nurses use mobile devices at work every day. They found that 65% use them for work purposes for at least 30 minutes a day, while 20% of practicing nurses did so for two hours or more daily.
- Nearly 2,500 nurses were surveyed, including those in practice, academics and a small number that are retired. Nurse managers were the most likely to use mobile devices and they were more likely to use iPhones and iPads than staff nurses.
- Nearly all hospital-based nurses said their employers let them use online resources to find clinical information at work including search engines, Wikipedia, YouTube and LinkedIn. Nearly half of the organizations encourage the use of Internet resources. Fewer than 30% allow the usage of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Dive Insight:
"These findings largely mirror what we are seeing outside the hospital, that use of mobile devices to access online information, the internet and social sites are becoming part of the social fabric both personally and professionally," said Judith McCann, chief nurse at Wolters Kluwer in a statement.
Studies show that mobile devices are becoming the chosen medium for clinicians to seek and share healthcare information. A survey by Ovum found that 53% of providers had access to EMRs via mobile devices. And mobile devices are quickly becoming more common than personal computers for physicians, according to an article in Healthcare IT News.