Computerized nursing staffing: A software evaluation

Abstract

The complexity involved in operationalizing the method for nursing staffing, in view of the uncountable variable related to identifying the workload, the effective working time of the staff, and the Technical Security Index (TSI) revealed the need to develop a software program named: Computerized Nursing Staffing (DIPE, in Portuguese acronyms). This exploratory, descriptive study was performed with the objective to evaluate the technical quality and functional performance of DIPE. Participants were eighteen evaluators, ten of whom where nurse faculty or nurse hospital unit managers, and eight health informatics experts. The software evaluation was performed according to norm NBR ISO/IEC 9126-1, considering the features functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, and maintainability. The software evaluation reached positive results and agreement among the evaluators for all the evaluated features. The reported suggestions are important for proposing further improving and enhancing the DIPE.