"We're doing training and education of nursing, and what we really want is to have an environment where there is evidence-based, standard processes and the nurses are consistent in their work," said Holland. "We document it well, we go through the process, so the patients really and truly get cared for in a way that helps make our community get healthy, helps the patients get better outcomes, but also, as an organization, helps give us confidence that our nurses are doing the right things."

After all, he said, "The EHR can be a very efficient tool, but you have to buy into it, you have to know about it. The people that are using the systems – unless you get them excited about it, and get them enough training so they see the value of it – it just becomes a hammer."

And some folks forget that it's usually nurses who are using EHRs more than anyone.

[See also: Nurses call for say in healthcare IT development.]

"There's been a lot of emphasis over the years on physician adoption," said Troseth. "But the reality is there are more than three million practicing nurses in this country, and especially with ACOs now, it's about the whole team. There's this whole group of caregivers that can improve care by adopting evidence-based practice and technology that we really need to start paying attention to."

Properly deployed, technology should be an enabler, rather than just another headache. That's the last thing most nurses need.

To get an idea of the average RN's harried daily workflow, Holland says his IT team "did some spaghetti diagrams," he said. "We took a map of the floor and we had staff go up on the floor and watch a nurse: They put their pencil on that paper and everywhere that nurse went, they started to trace."

The findings were startling, he said. "We realized that nursing has so many interruptions, so many different things they have to do and so many processes, that anything we could do to make it easier on them – to help them not only do a good job, but feel confident and know that they did a good job – was very beneficial."

Too many nurses are "burned out and frazzled at the end of the day," said Holland. "We need to give them tools to help them deliver quality care and help them to know they're doing a good job."