| ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES |
| Priority driven. | Priorities differ, perceptions differ, (record reflects problem solving strategies). |
| Tried and tested (We know its limits!) | Do we really? |
| Ease of information retrieval - instant when it works! | Poor reliability, often incomplete. Contents degrade quickly. |
| Relational. | Often disorganised. |
| Sensitive to context - can discriminate (is intelligent!) Can see significance not just relevance. | May be baised. |
| Has potential to reduce time spent on writing notes, keying in data. | Cannot be related to many others in native form. |
| Frequently subjective. | Health care also requires objectivity. |
| Essential to facilitate assessment and evaluations of nursing and health care. | Unable to process the required volumes outcomes and determine costing information. |
| Intelligent - responsive to pattern matching. | Carrier prone to sickness, even death. |
| Questionable in law, as account of events, opinions, outcomes. | Not always accessible. |
| Cost effective (with proper procurement, project management). | Difficult to verify cost effectiveness (without record keeping, data gathering). |
| Individual responsible for lapse of confidence. | Transfer of knowledge to other media may compromise confidentiality. |
| Can quickly be overwhelmed by large data volumes. |
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: Author - peter jones