Nursing administrators' experiences in managing PDA use for inpatient units

The adoption of information technology in patient care has become a trend in healthcare organizations. The impact of this technology on end users has been widely studied, but little attention has been given to its influence from a management perspective. The purpose of this study was to explore nurse managers' perceived experiences in implementing a policy to adopt personal digital assistant technology. A descriptive, exploratory qualitative approach (one-on-one, in-depth interviews) was used to collect data from 16 nurse managers of inpatient units at a medical center in Taiwan. Interview data were analyzed according to Miles and Huberman's data reduction, data display, and conclusion verification process. The results revealed that nurse managers experienced the limitations of technology, training issues, doctors' obstructive influence, role conflict, and improvement of future personal digital assistant use. These results can be used to improve strategic organizational planning and in-service training programs to implement information systems.