Self-perceptions of readiness to use electronic health records among medical students: Survey study

Lina Lander; Sally L. Baxter; Gary L. Cochran; Helena E. Gali; Kristen Cook; Thomas Hatch; Regan Taylor; Linda Awdishu

doi:10.2196/17585

Self-perceptions of readiness to use electronic health records among medical students: Survey study

Lina Lander, Sally L. Baxter, Gary L. Cochran, Helena E. Gali, Kristen Cook, Thomas Hatch, Regan Taylor, Linda Awdishu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Although several national organizations have declared the ability to work with electronic health records (EHRs) as a core competency of medical education, EHR education and use among medical students vary widely. Previous studies have reported EHR tasks performed by medical students, but students’ self-perceived readiness and comfort with EHRs are relatively unknown. Objective: This study aimed to better understand medical students’ self-perceived readiness to use EHRs to identify potential curricular gaps and inform future training efforts based on students’ perspectives. Methods: The authors deployed a survey investigating self-perceived comfort with EHRs at 2 institutions in the United States in May 2019. Descriptive statistics were generated regarding demographics, comfort level with various EHR-related tasks, and cross-institutional comparisons. We also assessed the impact of extracurricular EHR experience on comfort level. Results: In total, 147 medical students responded, of which 80 (54.4%) were female, with equal distribution across all 4 years of training. Overall confidence was generally higher for students with longer extracurricular EHR experience, even when adjusted for age, gender, year of training, and institution. Students were most comfortable with tasks related to looking up information in the EHR and felt less comfortable with tasks related to entering new information and managing medications. Fourth-year students at both schools reported similar levels of comfort with EHR use, despite differences in preclinical EHR training. Open-ended comments emphasized the value of experiential training over didactic formats. Conclusions: Information entry and medication management in the EHR represent areas for future curricular development. Experiential training via extracurricular activities and early clinical exposure may be high-yield approaches to help medical students achieve critical EHR competencies.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	e17585
Journal	JMIR Medical Education
Volume	6
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.2196/17585
State	Published - Jan 2020

Keywords

Education
Electronic health record
Medical student
Residency
Training

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Medicine(all)
Computer Science Applications

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@article{5894f3308e5c47ee83f992855c330851,

title = "Self-perceptions of readiness to use electronic health records among medical students: Survey study",

abstract = "Background: Although several national organizations have declared the ability to work with electronic health records (EHRs) as a core competency of medical education, EHR education and use among medical students vary widely. Previous studies have reported EHR tasks performed by medical students, but students{\textquoteright} self-perceived readiness and comfort with EHRs are relatively unknown. Objective: This study aimed to better understand medical students{\textquoteright} self-perceived readiness to use EHRs to identify potential curricular gaps and inform future training efforts based on students{\textquoteright} perspectives. Methods: The authors deployed a survey investigating self-perceived comfort with EHRs at 2 institutions in the United States in May 2019. Descriptive statistics were generated regarding demographics, comfort level with various EHR-related tasks, and cross-institutional comparisons. We also assessed the impact of extracurricular EHR experience on comfort level. Results: In total, 147 medical students responded, of which 80 (54.4%) were female, with equal distribution across all 4 years of training. Overall confidence was generally higher for students with longer extracurricular EHR experience, even when adjusted for age, gender, year of training, and institution. Students were most comfortable with tasks related to looking up information in the EHR and felt less comfortable with tasks related to entering new information and managing medications. Fourth-year students at both schools reported similar levels of comfort with EHR use, despite differences in preclinical EHR training. Open-ended comments emphasized the value of experiential training over didactic formats. Conclusions: Information entry and medication management in the EHR represent areas for future curricular development. Experiential training via extracurricular activities and early clinical exposure may be high-yield approaches to help medical students achieve critical EHR competencies.",

keywords = "Education, Electronic health record, Medical student, Residency, Training",

author = "Lina Lander and Baxter, {Sally L.} and Cochran, {Gary L.} and Gali, {Helena E.} and Kristen Cook and Thomas Hatch and Regan Taylor and Linda Awdishu",

note = "Funding Information: The authors would like to thank all the medical students who participated in this study. This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine (SB; grant T15LM011271). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Lina Lander, Sally L Baxter, Gary L Cochran, Helena E Gali, Kristen Cook, Thomas Hatch, Regan Taylor, Linda Awdishu.",

year = "2020",

month = jan,

doi = "10.2196/17585",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "6",

journal = "JMIR Medical Education",

issn = "2369-3762",

publisher = "JMIR Publications Inc.",

number = "1",

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T1 - Self-perceptions of readiness to use electronic health records among medical students

T2 - Survey study

AU - Lander, Lina

AU - Baxter, Sally L.

AU - Cochran, Gary L.

AU - Gali, Helena E.

AU - Cook, Kristen

AU - Hatch, Thomas

AU - Taylor, Regan

AU - Awdishu, Linda

N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to thank all the medical students who participated in this study. This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine (SB; grant T15LM011271). Publisher Copyright: © Lina Lander, Sally L Baxter, Gary L Cochran, Helena E Gali, Kristen Cook, Thomas Hatch, Regan Taylor, Linda Awdishu.

PY - 2020/1

Y1 - 2020/1

N2 - Background: Although several national organizations have declared the ability to work with electronic health records (EHRs) as a core competency of medical education, EHR education and use among medical students vary widely. Previous studies have reported EHR tasks performed by medical students, but students’ self-perceived readiness and comfort with EHRs are relatively unknown. Objective: This study aimed to better understand medical students’ self-perceived readiness to use EHRs to identify potential curricular gaps and inform future training efforts based on students’ perspectives. Methods: The authors deployed a survey investigating self-perceived comfort with EHRs at 2 institutions in the United States in May 2019. Descriptive statistics were generated regarding demographics, comfort level with various EHR-related tasks, and cross-institutional comparisons. We also assessed the impact of extracurricular EHR experience on comfort level. Results: In total, 147 medical students responded, of which 80 (54.4%) were female, with equal distribution across all 4 years of training. Overall confidence was generally higher for students with longer extracurricular EHR experience, even when adjusted for age, gender, year of training, and institution. Students were most comfortable with tasks related to looking up information in the EHR and felt less comfortable with tasks related to entering new information and managing medications. Fourth-year students at both schools reported similar levels of comfort with EHR use, despite differences in preclinical EHR training. Open-ended comments emphasized the value of experiential training over didactic formats. Conclusions: Information entry and medication management in the EHR represent areas for future curricular development. Experiential training via extracurricular activities and early clinical exposure may be high-yield approaches to help medical students achieve critical EHR competencies.

AB - Background: Although several national organizations have declared the ability to work with electronic health records (EHRs) as a core competency of medical education, EHR education and use among medical students vary widely. Previous studies have reported EHR tasks performed by medical students, but students’ self-perceived readiness and comfort with EHRs are relatively unknown. Objective: This study aimed to better understand medical students’ self-perceived readiness to use EHRs to identify potential curricular gaps and inform future training efforts based on students’ perspectives. Methods: The authors deployed a survey investigating self-perceived comfort with EHRs at 2 institutions in the United States in May 2019. Descriptive statistics were generated regarding demographics, comfort level with various EHR-related tasks, and cross-institutional comparisons. We also assessed the impact of extracurricular EHR experience on comfort level. Results: In total, 147 medical students responded, of which 80 (54.4%) were female, with equal distribution across all 4 years of training. Overall confidence was generally higher for students with longer extracurricular EHR experience, even when adjusted for age, gender, year of training, and institution. Students were most comfortable with tasks related to looking up information in the EHR and felt less comfortable with tasks related to entering new information and managing medications. Fourth-year students at both schools reported similar levels of comfort with EHR use, despite differences in preclinical EHR training. Open-ended comments emphasized the value of experiential training over didactic formats. Conclusions: Information entry and medication management in the EHR represent areas for future curricular development. Experiential training via extracurricular activities and early clinical exposure may be high-yield approaches to help medical students achieve critical EHR competencies.

KW - Education

KW - Electronic health record

KW - Medical student

KW - Residency

KW - Training

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Self-perceptions of readiness to use electronic health records among medical students: Survey study

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