Evaluation of a Multimedia Educational Training Program on Electronic Patient Record

A multimedia educational training program (CD-ROM) has been created which examines several aspects of the electronic patient record through the use of videos, audio descriptions, lectures and glossary. This CD-ROM was developed in the NIGHTINGALE project that lasted from 1996 to ’99 and was funded by the European Commission. The multimedia design of the Multimedia CD-ROM [1], is based on the considerations of intuitive and user friendly interface, appealing graphic style, easy localization for different countries, easy retrieval of the in-testing documents by means of different ways of access. Most of the items included are under MS Windows format. The objectives of this CD-ROM are to show the relevance of the information technology in everyday Nursing practice, to present the differences between the paper-based and electronic patient records and to provide a basic grounding in the principals, terminology and issues surrounding the use of electronic patient record. [2] The multimedia CD-ROM was evaluated for its user friendliness, the easiness of its use, the maximization of microcomputer attributes on it, and the level of its interest. The evaluators were students from different educational institutions across Europe, who took part in the NIGHTINGALE project. The evaluation sheets were collected from the different institutions by the University of Athens (Laboratory of Health Informatics, Faculty of Nursing) and a statistical processing followed. The evaluation lasted from September to November 1999. The multimedia CD-ROM was to be evaluated on a 4-point scale. There are three modules in these questionnaires. The questions evaluated the easiness of use of the CD-ROM, the maximization of microcomputer attributes, and the level of interest. A global rating of the CD-ROM was also requested in the questionnaire. The educators should perform the evaluation process in a specific way, by selecting a typical course of students in Nursing Informatics, installing the multimedia CD-ROM on several computers, demonstrating the CD-ROM to the students and distributing the questionnaires to them. [3] The total evaluation results for the Multimedia CD-ROM include 64 evaluation sheets. In the first module of the questionnaire (Ease of Use) the majority of the students selected the highest point (point 4 in the climax 1 to 4 from the lowest to the highest evaluation) for the easiness to start and exit the program, and for the instructions, while point 3 was selected for the rest of the questions (users’ controls pace and sequence, luck of programming errors, ability of the user to identify where he/she is in the program, easy to read size and style of text). Both in the second (Maximization of microcomputer attributes) and third (Interest Level) module of the questionnaire, the majority of the students selected point 3 for all the questions (enhancing learning format, length of video segments, authenticity of on-screen characters, effective use of video vs. computer to present content, video quality, and holding users’ attention, motivation, personalisation by use of branching). Regarding the global rating of the multimedia CD-ROM, the majority of the students selected point 3. The results from the evaluation of the multimedia CDROM were very positive and the majority of the evaluators found effective, easy to operate, user friendly, and interesting. The multimedia CD-ROM enhances the teaching process of the electronic patient record and contributes to the computer supported training in the field of health/medical informatics.