Early Technology Training Boosts Clinician Confidence in Patient Care

Early exposure to electronic health records (EHRs) could become a high-impact lever for improving nurse practitioner education—and possibly easing clinical burnout that ripples through healthcare teams. A new study from The University of Texas at Arlington reports that students who begin EHR training sooner show stronger confidence and need less real-time, on-the-job remediation when they enter practice settings.

The findings target a less-discussed source of stress: the experienced clinicians who supervise trainees. When preceptors have to explain workflows, documentation logic, and order entry from scratch, the supervisory role can become an additional burden—particularly in busy clinics where time is tight.

Researchers describe EHRs as digital, shareable repositories of patient history designed to coordinate care across settings. In that context, early training functions as workflow familiarization, not simply software instruction. By learning typical navigation paths, documentation structures, and order-entry steps before clinical rotations, students are better prepared to contribute.

UT Arlington researchers Rhonda Winegar and Mari Tietze coauthored the work after integrating an academic EHR platform into family nurse practitioner coursework. The study followed 121 graduate students enrolled in two sequential courses, Family I and Family II, assessing satisfaction and perceived readiness as exposure increased.

Students with prior EHR familiarity reported higher confidence and clearer expectations for clinical work. In contrast, Family I students—those encountering EHRs for the first time in the program—reported lower preparedness and greater frustration, suggesting that “learning on the fly” is not a consistent process at clinical sites.

A key technical nuance emerged: clinical workflows vary by practice setting and by preceptor behavior. In some environments, patient encounters may occur before documentation and order entry are completed, meaning students may not observe the EHR steps that later become essential.

The study also framed the issue within broader workforce concerns. Burnout advisories have highlighted EHR-related strain as a contributing factor, and earlier training may reduce the cascading stress that occurs when supervisors compensate for training gaps.

Tietze emphasized that EHR expectations are shifting quickly, pointing to emerging tools such as ambient listening, where AI can capture conversations and draft clinical notes. That trajectory suggests education must evolve toward earlier, structured, and technologically grounded preparation.

Future research is planned with larger student cohorts to test how reliably early EHR integration improves outcomes across programs and clinical environments. For now, the study’s message is straightforward: prepare students in the classroom, so preceptors aren’t forced to become the first line of technical instruction.