Why not use mobile phones: an observational study of medical work

Previous studies suggest that mobile phones could prevent many communication and information breakdowns that commonly occur in a hospital environment. However, the actual benefits of mobile phones in medical work remain unexplored. We studied mobile phone usage among nurses in an Emergency Department (ED). Surprisingly, mobile phones were not favored by our study participants. We found that mobile phones do not support essential characteristics of nursing work in ED because they lack support for group awareness, informative interruption, and role-based calling. The findings suggest that the design of mobile devices should support nurses' share of work responsibilities and the need for information transparency.

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