Nursing and Technology

Blog # 11

From a simple and practical standpoint, technology has many advantages to offer nursing. I for one, can hardly stand to try to read the doctor's handwriting (nurses to for that matter). Having the orders and progress notes on the computer would save me a headache and save them from double charting (they would otherwise have to read their charting to me again). At the same time, I can understand some hesitancy about the changes technology is bringing. Power outages become an increasingly serious and crictical problem, technology rarely works they way we want it to, and the list goes on. Despite these set backs, it seems inevitable that technology, and lots of it, is coming. So perhaps the best question is how we deal with technology we have. For the nurse, I would venture to say that most important thing to remeber is to never substitue patient interactions with technology. Although the technology helps, people ultimately need other people, not more power cords and electronic gaudets. Hopefully, with this in mind, nurses will be able to blend technology smoothly into health care.