One Size Doesn’t Fit All: The Efficiency of Graphical, Numerical and Textual Clinical Decision Support for Nurses

Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems have the potential of significantly improving the quality and efficiency of patient care, but they need to present information in a way that is easily understandable by health care personnell. In the clinical setting, nurses are often tasked with the care of a large number of patients, and in specific scenarios are in charge of independently making care decisions to improve patient comfort and for symptom relief care. We developed a CDS prototype embedded in a nursing handoff management tool, which provides suggestions to adjust a plan of care based on a patient’s profile. We show how presenting patient data and evidence in different forms (textual, tabular, graphical) has an impact on the efficiency of nurse decision making, and how a nurse’s graphical literacy influences this process.