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From semi-mobile to mobile work? Possibilities and constraints for hand-held computer use in home health care

Helena Karsten, Janne Konttila, Sanna Järvi, Thomas Hughes, From semi-mobile to mobile work? Possibilities and constraints for hand-held computer use in home health care. In: Mobile Computing in Medicine, Heidelberg, April 2002, 2002.

Abstract:

This paper discusses the possibilities and constraints for using mobile
computing in home health care by examining the work of home health care
nurses in the city of Turku, located in the southwestern part of Finland. Home health care differs from other forms of health care by
being ‘semi-mobile’. Approximately half of a nurse’s day is spent making
visits to the homes of patients and the other half is spent at a shared
office. While in the office, the nurses, among other things, enter
information into a patient information system and communicate with other
nurses present. By following the work of nurses, we found several
possible applications for mobile or hand held devices. Mobile access to
a variety of information sources and improved communication
possibilities seemed valuable and appeared to offer possibilities for
both improving the quality of the nurses’ work and allowing the nurses
to spend more time with their patients.

In our study, however, we also found that the special nature of the work
of home health care nurses sets many important constraints which must be
taken into consideration before the work of home health care nurses can
become truly mobile. Among other things, we found that the visits the
nurses make to the office are more than just mandatory visits required
for entering patient information and reporting the day’s events to other
nurses.

BibTeX entry:

@INPROCEEDINGS{pKaKoJaHu02a,
  title = {From semi-mobile to mobile work? Possibilities and constraints for hand-held computer use in home health care},
  booktitle = { Mobile Computing in Medicine, Heidelberg, April 2002},
  author = {Karsten, Helena and Konttila, Janne and Järvi, Sanna and Hughes, Thomas},
  year = {2002},
}

Belongs to TUCS Research Unit(s): Health and Medical Informatics Institute

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