Investigating nurses' intention to use electronic health records: The Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology approach

: Technology integration into the public health care sector is considered one of the pipeline projects to enhance healthcare proficiency and productivity. As such, there has been huge investment in the health domain geared towards successfully integrating health technology among health professionals all in the quest to achieve better health delivery services and universal health coverage. User acceptance of such technology as electronic health records has become necessary for the productive deployment of the health sector innovations. The study adopted the Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and additional constructs of attitude and design aesthetics to investigate nurses’ intention to use electronic health records, as they form part of the direct users of the technology. A field investigation was carried out with 381 nurses from diverse medical institutions in Ghana. The study used a quantitative approach anchored on the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to verify that, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, attitude, and design aesthetics, all have a substantial positive impact on nurse's electronic health records adoption intention. The results of the analysis indicated the behavioral intention (BI) of nurses to use electronic health records was predictable by Performance Expectancy (PE) (β = .194**, p < 0.01), Effort Expectancy (EE) (β = .261***, p < 0.001), Social Influence (SI) (β = .377***, p < 0.001), Attitude (ATT) (β = .380***, p < 0.001) and Design Aesthetic (β = .217**, p < 0.01). The findings confirm that the UTAUT model has predictive potential and viability. The study implications are discussed based on empirical findings.