Interaction Climate and Use of Information Systems in Discharge Planning: Hospital Nurses’ Perspectives

We report on a study in which we explored Norwegian hospital nurses’ assessments of their use of information systems and the interaction climate in their cooperation with colleagues in municipalities. Our hypotheses were that the hospital size and type of department influenced how hospital nurses assessed the interaction climate with nurses in the municipalities and how they used their information systems. A cross-sectional sample survey was conducted with 20 Norwegian hospitals, and 510 nurses responded using a questionnaire. Applying a factor analysis, we identified three climate factors representing interaction climate, and found that the hospital size and type of department had implications for nurses’ agreement about collaboration and medical information climate, though not for nursing information climate. Furthermore, hospital size and type of department also exerted an influence to some extent on hospital nurses’ use of their information systems. Further studies should elaborate on the reason for the identified differences.