Application of Concept Analysis to Clinical Practice

Application of Concept Analysis to Clinical Practice

Staci Forcade

Grand Canyon University

Theoretical Foundations for Nursing Roles and Practice

Nursing 502

June 8, 2016

        McEwen and Wills (2014) define concepts as “terms that refer to phenomena that occur in nature or in thought” (p. 50).  Concepts can be either concrete or abstract and are constructed in words so that people may understand and communicate their meanings about common realities and “give meaning to phenomena that can directly or indirectly be seen, heard tasted, smelled, or touched”. (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p. 50).  Within the nursing profession, knowledge development is enhanced by the formal study of concepts though “naming, creating and confirming the phenomena”. (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p. 51)        

Within the fields of consumer science, engineering, technology and architecture the concept of usability is imprecisely defined.  It is “generally used to describe systems and technology that are self-explanatory to untrained users” (as sited Chandor, Graham, & Williamson, 1985) but there are problems with that simplistic definition.  Shultz and Hand (2015) state that usability can be influenced by many factors, including the user’s age, culture or nationality, level of understanding, specific computer software or hardware and the capacity of the computer. (as cited Soares, Jacobs, Chun, & Patterson, 2012a; as cited in Soares, Jacobs, & Nassar, 2012b) There are many common uses of the word usability.  The root word of usability is “usable” and as such is defined by Merriam-Webster Online as “capable of being used, or convenient and practicable for use” (“Usable”, n.d.).  The term usability is applicable to several different industries and as such, there are slightly different definitions dependent on the industry.  The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers defined usability “as the effortlessness with which a person can learn to use the system”. (as cited Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [IEEE], 2009)  Within the field of nursing informatics, usability has been defined as “specific issues of human performance in achieving specific goals during computer interactions within a particular context”. (as cited Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 173)  While the American Nurses Association (ANA) stated that “ease of learning a system, ease of use, and efficiency of completing tasks are also related to usability”. (cited as American Nurses Association [ANA], 2008)

In their research study, “Usability: A Concept Analysis” Shultz and Hand (2015) examined the concept of usability as it relates to information and information technology within nursing and nursing informatics “in order to distinguish among the common usage of this concept in its broad, imprecise meaning” (Shultz & Hand, 2015).  The method of concept analysis applied was that of Walker and Avant (2011).  

Description of the Method

For this concept analysis, the defining attributes are those most often appearing in the literature: ease of learning, efficiency, and satisfaction. (Shultz & Hand, 2015) and the definition of the term usability is “the degree to which the user perceives acceptable learnability, efficiency, and satisfaction when using technology”. (Shultz & Hand, 2015, p. 66)