C.N.I.S. — Innovation into practice

Abstract

Kimberly defines an innovation as a departure from existing practices or technologies which represent a significant departure from the art at the time it appears. The development and implementation of a Clinical Nursing Information System (C.N.I.S.) is an innovation for Wales. The thought of trying something new is often viewed with caution or fear, and the use of the computer by ward nurses represents a significant departure from their previous practice of record keeping. A literature review identified several papers which considered the introduction of innovations, Hage and Aiken examined the innovation process and sequence of events in relation to organisational change. This work appeared to provide an appropriate theoretical framework to apply when developing and implementing C.N.I.S.

This paper describes the development of C.N.I.S. and discusses how the evaluation, initiation and implementation stages of the innovation process have been applied.