Objectives The documentation of the nursing process is an important, but often neglected part of clinical documentation. Paper-based systems have been introduced to support nursing process documentation. Frequently, however, problems such as low quality of documentation are reported. It is unclear if computer-based documentation systems can reduce these problems, and which factors influence their acceptance by users.

Design We introduced a computer-based nursing documentation system on four wards of the University Hospitals of Heidelberg, and systematically evaluated its preconditions and its effects in a pre-test post-test intervention study. For the analysis of user acceptance, we concentrated on subjective data drawn from questionnaires and interviews.

Measurements A questionnaire was developed using items from published questionnaires and items which had to be developed for the special purpose of this study.

Results The quantitative results point to two factors influencing the acceptance of a new computer-based documentation system: the previous acceptance of the nursing process, and the previous amount of self confidence when using computers. On one ward, the diverse acceptance scores heavily declined after the introduction of the nursing documentation system. Explorative qualitative analysis on this ward points to further success factors of computer-based nursing documentation systems.

Conclusion Our results can be used to assist the planning and introduction of computer-based nursing documentation systems. They demonstrate the importance of computer experience and acceptance of the nursing process on a ward, but also point to other factors such as the fit between nursing workflow and the functionality of a nursing documentation system.