Explaining Pharmacists' Intentions to use Personal Digital Assistants as Clinical Resources During Patient Care Interventions

Abstract

This research project explored the ability of a modified Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM2) to explain pharmacists’ intentions to use personal digital assistants (PDAs) to document interventions. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been extensively applied to the explanation of users’ intentions to adopt computing technology in non-healthcare settings, consistently explaining approximately 40% of the variance in usage intentions. The TAM2 was developed to provide greater specificity about the factors influencing the primary TAM construct, perceived usefulness. Other research has identified the antecedents of the secondary TAM construct, perceived ease of use. Little published research has applied TAM or TAM2 to healthcare settings and users.

Pharmaceutical Care is a philosophy of pharmacy practice in which pharmacists take heightened responsibility for their impact on patient outcomes. Intervention documentation is one way that pharmacists accept the responsibility defined in pharmaceutical care. Pharmacists use a variety of methods to record interventions; most recently, PDAs have received attention as a potentially useful documentation method.

This study sought to explore a modified TAM2’s ability to explain pharmacists’ intentions to use PDAs to document interventions. Model fit indices indicated that the TAM2 did not sufficiently describe the data. A bootstrap procedure was then performed due to a small sample size. Model fit indices from the bootstrap procedure indicated that the TAM2 did not fit the data. The modified TAM2 was concluded to not be a useful model for explaining pharmacists’ intentions to use PDAs to document interventions.

This study also focused on the relationships between other factors and usage intentions. Specifically, results indicated a non-significant increase in the group’s intention to use PDAs from before to after a presentation on PDA use. Other analyses tested for relationships between intentions and five demographic variables: professional position, pharmacy department size, gender, age, and experience. An inverse relationship was identified between pharmacy department size and intentions; intentions to use PDAs to document interventions increased as the size of the pharmacy department decreased.

This research could serve as the initiation point for future research related to pharmacists’ intentions to use PDAs (and other technologies). Future research should seek to replicate the present study using a larger sample that is more representative of the profession. Other models of behavior can also be explored using different technologies. Future research should also measure actual usage of the target technology.