By Emily Olsen

Nearly one-third of nurses experiencing symptoms of burnout last year said their electronic health records were a contributor, according to a report by healthcare IT research firm Klas.

Of those nurses, 40% said they were likely to leave their organization within the next two years.

Many nurses don’t think they have a say in governance over the EHR at their organizations. Sixty-five percent of survey respondents didn’t agree that they have a voice in EHR changes, while 39% said they don’t feel they can ask for fixes.

One long-term frustration for clinicians is the amount of time and effort it takes to document care or perform other administrative work in EHRs, which can contribute to burnout.

Thirty-three percent of nurses reported symptoms of burnout in the Klas survey, which included feedback from roughly 75,000 respondents.

For example, nurses argue they face technological challenges, like slow loading times or unplanned system downtime. Forty percent of nurses reported their EHR doesn’t have the expected response time, while nearly a quarter said the record isn’t reliable.

Stress and burnout among nurses is a significant challenge for the healthcare workforce. Some research has found a large chunk of nurses are considering changing jobs or leaving the profession entirely due to burnout — a major problem for health systems who are still recovering from the workforce shortages and heightened labor costs they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

EHR challenges contribute to nurse burnout

Percentage of respondents citing contributors to burnout

Poor EHR response time affects nurse perception of system reliability

Percentage of nurses who report reason for dissatisfaction with EHR infrastructure

Improvements and upgrades aren’t always helpful to nurses either, according to the survey. Sixty-seven percent of respondents didn’t agree that upgrades improved the EHR. More than 70% said EHR optimizations weren’t delivered quickly enough, and 60% felt fixes weren’t timely. Half said changes to the EHR weren’t well communicated to them.