Functional requirements for IT support for nursing information systems integrated in electronic healthcare record systems (EHCRS)

This paper focuses on the functional requirements that support the activities performed by healthcare professionals, i.e. functions performed in the healthcare enterprise which result in requirements for IT support. The emphasis is on IT support for nursing activities as a part of general IT support for the whole care process realized through EHCRS. We argue that a standard for functionality (including user interface and functions supporting information security) would benefit manufacturers by giving them a well-defined target to aim for and give purchasers and users of EHCRS a foundation on which to base their specifications. Quality would be enhanced by ensuring that all EHCRS contained a standard core functionality and were compliant with basic structural requirements. To get a comprehensive list of requirements to ensure that EHCRS with IT support for nursing activities serve as an aid to the process of care it is essential that nurses get directly involved in the process of defining the requirements. In this paper we also give some examples of requirements that are candidates for standardisation.