Nurses’ perception of wearable technology used in health care

Abstract

Introduction: Emerging trends like m-health and e-health radically impact the healthcare delivery system. Wearable gadgets with sophisticated sensors and data processing capabilities continuously track many health factors. This enables proactive interventions, personalized care, and improved patient outcomes. Using wearable devices to promote health behavior change effectively is a complex, multistep process. This study assessed nurses' perceived benefits and barriers to using wearable technology in health care.

Methods:  A descriptive study with 4800 consecutively selected professional nurses from tertiary care hospitals in India was assessed using a self-administered validated opinionnaire on a five-point Likert Scale to obtain information regarding perceived benefits and barriers to using wearable technology. Perceived benefits were evaluated using a 12-item opinionnaire and were scored as low benefit (12-24), neutral (25-36), and high benefit (37-60).  Perceived barriers were cut as low (16-32), neutral (33-48), and high (49-80)

Results:  Mean age of participants was 31.08 (SD + 6.73) yrs, and most were female (78 %), and were graduate nurses (88%) with 5-9 yrs of experience (30%).  About 62% of nurses perceived wearable technology as beneficial, but 38% had a high level of perception about the barriers. Enhanced patient safety and reduced medical errors were some of the benefits, and lack of knowledge and training, patient refusal, poor guidelines, and lack of self-efficacy were some of the barriers perceived by nurses. There was a significant association (p< 0.01) between predefined demographic characteristics and nurses’ perception of wearable technology.

Discussion and Conclusion:  The study assessed nurses' perceived benefits and barriers to using wearable technology in health care. The results indicated that wearable technology is perceived as beneficial by nurses. Despite the perceived benefits and motives for the use of wearable technology, there were some substantial barriers identified by nurses.  The management needs to provide adequate technical support services and continue to motivate nurses to use these technologies in patient care.