Factors of Nurses’ Using Mobile Applications to Provide Home Nursing Care: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

Background: The aging of global population, coupled with the increase in chronic noncommunicable diseases, has made home nursing care services an increasingly vital component of elderly care. Thus, the demand for such services has increased, prompting the development of mobile home nursing care applications (MHNCAs) to assist nurses in delivering home-based care. However, nurses’ willingness to use MHNCAs remains relatively low.

Aim: This study aims to investigate what and how the factors affect nurses’ use of MHNCAs.

Methods: Based on social cognitive theory, we have formulated a research model to identify and explain the relationships between factors and nurses’ use of MHNCAs. We use a multiple analytical approach including structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) to examine the research model.

Results: The SEM analysis results show that environmental factors could affect nurses’ use of MHNCAs through personal factors, while the ANN analysis results highlight outcome expectations as the strongest predictor of nurses’ MHNCA usage.

Conclusions: The factors and their working mechanisms of nurses’ using MHNCAs are uncovered and validated. Our study explores novel factors of using of mobile health applications from the perspective of nurses and novel mobile applications. Besides, we contextualize and extend social cognitive theory within our study. Moreover, we unveil the underlying mechanisms by confirming the mediating roles of self-efficacy and outcome expectations.

Implications for Nursing Management: Our findings can benefit nursing managers, nursing educators, and the broader nursing community by informing the design of MHNCAs tailored for nurses, supporting the uptake of MHNCAs, and enhancing the training and education related to nurses’ technology use. Therefore, our study underscores the cutting-edge advancements in mobile health applications within the digital realm and the nursing context, highlighting the importance of these technologies in contemporary nursing practices.