News Feature | September 17, 2014

2 Of 3 Nurses Use Mobile Daily

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Mobile Usage Among Nurses

A survey of nearly 2,500 nurses found that 65 percent use mobile devices at work every day.

A recent survey conducted by Wolters Kluwer Health has found 65 percent of nurses say they use mobile devices for professional purposes at work every day for at least 30 minutes. MobiHealth News adds that, of those nurses, 20 percent used their mobile devices for two or more hours each day.

"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, Lippincott Solutions, Wolters Kluwer Health, Professional & Education.

Other key findings of the survey include:

  • 89 percent of healthcare organizations allow nurses to use online search engines at work
  • 60 percent of respondents say they use social media to follow healthcare issues at work and 86 percent say they follow healthcare issues on social media outside of work
  • roughly one-half of the respondents saying that their organization blocks access on company networks to social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube
  • within the 95 percent who say they access health information at work, 48 percent of respondents say their healthcare institutions encourage nurses to access online resources; 41 percent allow for occasional use; and 5 percent only as a last resort
  • among those who use mobile devices at work, Nurse Managers, at 77 percent, are more likely to use them than Staff Nurses, at 58 percent

Nurses are using their mobile devices to access drug information from sources like the Nursing Drug Handbook App. "It is important that nurses are not using their mobile devices to get just any questionable answer that they find." added McCann. "It has to be the 'right' answer, so it's paramount that they are turning to evidence-based clinical information that has been vetted and is consistently updated."

"Although these findings may not reflect the actual policies of these institutions, what's interesting are the perceptions of the nurses who work there, and what we learned is that nurses are frequently incorporating the use of mobile devices, online resources and, to some extent, social media into their daily workflow," says McCann.