Usability Evaluation of a Novel SimEMR Training Program: Impact on Nursing Cognitive Workload

Introduction: Medication administration is a high-risk task requiring integration of clinical information and digital systems. This study evaluates cognitive workload in a SimEMR©-based simulation to assess whether task demands are appropriate for users with different levels of clinical experience. Methods: Thirty participants (17 clinicians, 13 non-clinicians) completed a high-fidelity medication administration simulation following structured SimEMR© training. Post-simulation workload was assessed using NASA-TLX and analyzed in Minitab. Results: Overall workload did not differ significantly between groups ( t (21) = −1.70, p = 0.103), with overlapping distributions. Subscale analysis showed greater variability in non-clinicians, particularly for frustration and performance, with a non-significant multivariate trend ( p = 0.079). Conclusion: The simulation imposed comparable cognitive demand across users with different experience levels. Variability across workload dimensions highlights differences in how task demands are experienced and informs targeted instructional design.