The Role of DocuCONnect, an Electronic Health Record Simulator, As a Supplementary Tool in Enhancing Nursing Documentation Skills

Abstract

Modern healthcare delivery is evolving the way patient data is managed globally, increasing the need for medical personnel skilled in digital charting. This study is done to assess whether a single exposure session to DocuCONnect, an electronic health record simulator, can enhance the nursing documentation skills. A pre-experimental quantitative design was employed, involving 123 third-year nursing students. Data were collected using questionnaires adapted from Yu & Qian and QNOTE checklist. Weighted mean and paired t-test were utilized for results analysis. Pre-tests scores show students “Good knowledge, skills, and attitude” toward electronic health records (mean = 5.14). Post-test increased to “Excellent knowledge, skills, and attitude” after usage of DocuCONnect (mean = 6.35), indicating an improvement. Paired t-test result shows significant difference across all variables (p-value = <0.001). In documentation quality, the output of the students were interpreted as “Partially Compliant” (mean = 2.18), highlighting areas needing improvement. The study revealed that DocuCONnect significantly improved the nursing students’ knowledge, skills, and attitude, suggesting that hands-on exposure with digital charting can effectively bridge theory-practice gap. Despite these improvements, the overall quality of nursing documentation still showed only partial compliance highlighting the need for more exposures and collaborations among nursing academe, practitioners, administration, and  future researchers to strengthen digital documentation skills through integrating simulators like DocuCONnect in education, training, passing institutional policies, and research expansion.