In 28 years of nursing, I've used many different forms of charting ("Nurses' Dissatisfaction with Electronic Health Records Remains High," AJN Reports, November 2016). Our current electronic health record (EHR) system falls short of being an adequate way to document patient care. Nursing care is complex, and procedures can't always be charted using a drop-down menu of 10 choices.

I often spend more time searching for words to describe the procedure I performed than I did performing it. Our EHR system does not provide areas for descriptions of procedures. I can chart random words to explain what I did, but the "why I did it" is lost. Nursing care, in its complexity, isn't something that can be summed up by checking boxes beside words. EHRs have their place in health care, but without input from bedside nurses they will never be a truly effective way to chart.

Karen Frazier, RN, VA-BC

New London, NC