75,000 Nurses Share Feedback on Their EHR Experience

When the KLAS Arch Collaborative first started measuring clinician EHR satisfaction in 2017, research primarily focused on providers’ experiences and needs. Over the years, we have expanded our research to include other clinician types—including nurses—as healthcare organizations often need to implement different EHR best practices for different roles. 

In 2022, the Arch Collaborative published its first Nursing Guidebook, which included strategies for improving nurse EHR satisfaction based on responses from nearly 16,000 nurses. Since then, we have gathered even more feedback, collecting responses from around 75,000 nurses. This feedback is detailed in the recently published 2024 Nursing Guidebook, which shares (1) how the Arch Collaborative’s EHR House of Success impacts nurse EHR satisfaction and wellness and (2) best practices for healthcare organizations to improve the nurse experience.

Staffing Shortages Are Increasing Nurse Burnout

Part of the catalyst behind the Arch Collaborative’s increased focus on nurses is the increase in nurse burnout, and one key addition to the 2024 Nursing Guidebook is best practices for improving nurse wellness. The COVID-19 pandemic affected all healthcare workers, and nurses were no exception. The urgent need for skilled nurses coupled with a lack of investment in an enhanced nurse experience has led to severe staffing shortages and high turnover rates. Additionally, nurses often feel frustrated and overburdened with inefficient charting as well as other tasks that should be handled by different roles.

According to Arch Collaborative data, burned-out nurses are 192% more likely to leave their organizations within the next two years compared to those who don’t report experiencing burnout. From a business perspective, healthcare organizations need to ask themselves how they can better support their nurses and reduce turnover. While some best practices can improve both the provider and nurse experience, organizations can’t assume that all strategies will benefit nurses. In fact, some efforts to support providers can be inadvertently detrimental to nurses. Healthcare organizations should reevaluate staffing models and EHR strategies with nurses in mind to ensure that their needs are being met.

Quality of EHR Infrastructure, Education, Governance & Personalization Impact Nurse Satisfaction

In addition to new research on nurse wellness, the 2024 Nursing Guidebook includes nurse-specific best practices for the foundation and pillars that make up the Arch Collaborative EHR House of Success. While the 2022 version focused mainly on EHR education and governance, the new guidebook provides insights for those important areas as well as for EHR infrastructure (e.g., system reliability and response time) and personalization. Both of these areas have become increasingly critical to nurse satisfaction, as improving training programs is ineffective if nurse users can’t even log in to the EHR.

While nurses’ satisfaction with the EHR has increased in recent years, their satisfaction with EHR governance, or shared ownership, has not shown significant improvement. Organizational leaders and IT teams have a great opportunity to better their relationship with nurses and include them more in EHR strategies, as the quality of this relationship is closely correlated with nurse burnout. In many cases, the EHR is not the primary cause of nurse turnover—it is the lack of alignment between the executive leadership’s goals and nurses’ needs. If nurses don’t feel supported by their organization’s leaders and IT, they will likely not feel well equipped to handle EHR challenges when they occur, leading them to feel more burned out. In contrast, when organizations collaborate with nurses and make even small workflow improvements, nurses’ experiences can significantly improve. There are many approachable, feasible strategies that organizations can employ to increase nurse satisfaction and wellness.

Healthcare Organizations Need to Listen to Nurses

A recurring theme throughout the 2024 Nursing Guidebook is the importance of listening to nurses and valuing their input. Nurses have many improvement ideas—not only for their own workflows but also for providers and other roles. Healthcare organizations need to engage with their nurses and plan solutions based on their feedback. The best practices shared in the guidebook are intended to be a resource and starting point for organizational leadership. While organizations should always consider their own specific needs when implementing solutions, the best practices in the 2024 Nursing Guidebook are proven to help improve nurse satisfaction and wellness. Improvement is possible, and nurses can be satisfied. We encourage all to read the full guidebook to learn how.

Healthcare organizations don’t have to face challenges alone. The Arch Collaborative is here to support organizations and help them achieve EHR success and employee satisfaction. We can facilitate this by measuring where organizations are in their EHR journey; connecting them with other high-performing organizations; sharing reports and case studies; and holding networking events and summits for organizations to collaborate. For more information on how to participate in the Arch Collaborative, see here.

© Rawpixel.com / Adobe Stock