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Administrators know that it is fiscally impossible to provide enough expert nursing resources in the form of clinical leaders, nurse clinicians, and clinical specialists on a 24-hour basis. The computer can extend the expertise of these specialists to the patient's primary nurse who, as this article states, is able to “complete the clinical picture through observation, physical examination, and interview.” The program described here is not specifically a nursing application, although the article does include a discussion of how the patients' primary nurses are being incorporated into the system. The major reason for presenting this article is to acquaint JONA ‘s readers with a recognized model of computer-assisted medical decision making, as well as the impact of the system on clinical, fiscal, and personnel issues. It is hoped that after reading this article, administrators who currently have a computer-based clinical information system will be encouraged to develop applications that assist nurses in making clinical decisions. If you currently have such an application, or you know of anyone who does, please do let us know.
Johnson et al. (1980) studied this question.