Technology and Nursing

Introduction

According to Neil (92) technology has resulted into a complete revolution in the works of the nurses and doctors. He points out that all these care givers have utilized the advanced medical technology to increase their supply of information, which has in turn enabled them to address the looming disease outbreaks. He observes, because of the development of medical technology, certain medical controlling mechanisms have had to be faced out especially those, which are not compatible with the current technologies. On the other hand, medical technology has promoted the innovation of those medical control mechanisms that are compatible with the emerging technological information.

Even though technology has widely been used by doctors and nurses, it has not come without its challenges. Neil (92) notes that several doctors and nurses have found it difficult in coping with the emerging new information. According to him, this has gone a long way to especially affect these doctors’ social responsibilities towards patients. This has necessitated the employment of more nurses to assist the doctors in addressing various issues that arises from advancement of medical technologies. Both the nurses and doctors have had to deal with several issues emerging at their work places as a result of the emerging technologies.

Nurses and Technology

Just like the doctors, technology has impacted differently on the nurses operations. Runny (1) also admits that even though nurses are normally reluctant to venture into the new technologies, there access and familiarization of such technologies have revolutionized their healthcare service delivery. He points out that technology has increased the supply of information that has affected the nurses’ health care delivery in terms of its speed and capacity. This has been made possible by the invention of advanced technologies such as electronic IV monitors, which has greatly improved the medical healthcare among the patients.

According to Bonnel and Smith (5), technology has improved how nurses manage their patient’s records. They point out that, nurses under their healthcare services are required to maintain and provide accurate health records of their respective patients to avoid miss diagnosis cases and missing of records. Neil (99) agrees with the two scholars noting that nurses have made use of the computerization programs that are available in various health centers to help them maintain accurate patients’ records in their database programs. This has improved the patients’ health care service delivery as their daily health progress records are made available for perusal in seconds.

Bonnel and Smith (1) argue that even though it has been widely reported that technology has reduced the physical interaction between the nurses and their corresponding patients, nurses have remain to be more close to patients as compared to doctors. They note that the invention of various technologies have made it easier for nurses to access and even personalize patients health records. This has enabled the nurses to closely monitor the health progress of their patients. Bonnel and Smith (1) further note that the technology has enabled the nurses to share the records of their patients between different departments within the health facilities.

Even with the many advantages that have been seen in the delivery of healthcare services as a result of the improvement in technology, a number of negative effects have been identified. Bonnel and Smith (1), for example, have noted that the patients have also not been left out by the negative impacts of technology. They observe that in most cases, patients feel unease with their nurses based on the environment that might have been created by sharing of their health status among the nurses. This has resulted into complains among the patients that computerization of their records violates their privacy. Such complains have, in some cases, generated conflicts between the nurses and the patients thereby negatively affecting the delivery of health services by the nurses.

Runny (1) also agrees that technology has also impacted negatively on patient’s health care. She points out that unlike the previous years where nurses could administer drugs and stay in put by the patient’s sides, the evolution of technology has enabled nurses to limit the time they take with their patients. This has negatively affected the relationship between the patients and nurses resulting in a number of negative impact on the health care services. Today many nurses are unable to fully address the patients’ issues, because they rarely get to know them better.

According to Runny (1), the evolution of medical technology has also necessitated the employment of more nurses, who have advance ideas on such technologies. This has raised the cost of treatment because the technological knowledgeable nurses have always demanded for higher compensation compared to other nurses. This means that the advanced technology has also impacted negatively on nurses who have little technological knowhow, thereby, causing divisions among the nurses. According to Bonnel and Smith (1), the increased cost of treatment has also resulted from the computerization of most of the operations in the healthcares. They argue that this has made it difficult for the low-income patients to get full medical services. For instance, they note that patients from poor families, who are to be hospitalized are unable to exploit the hospital nursing services due to their financial constraints.

Bonnel and Smith (1) point out that, just like in the case of doctors, technology can impact negatively on the nurses’ performance. They note that technology not only reduces the physical interaction of nurses and patience, but it also does the same between hospital departments. This reduces the performance of nurses as they are unable to physically interact during their professionalism. Separating the nurses limits the frequency with which they can share their views on various healthcare service deliveries. Bonnel and Smith (1) note that it is always advisable for nurses to physically interact with their colleagues as this enables them to develop more skills and approaches on how to handle various patients.

Bonnel and Smith (2) also argue that technology has affected the social ethical standards of most of the nurses. They note that just like doctors, nurses have continuously used the social internet sites in engaging in social relationships. Bonnel and Smith argue that unlike the doctors, who at many times develop internet blogs to reach to their patients, nurses normally concentrate on the social perspective due to their lower medical level. They observe that in the processes of sharing their views in the social sites, some nurses have at times speculated on an issue that portrays them negatively. In such cases, nurses usually experience working opposition from either their colleagues or their respective patients that adversely affect their healthcare service delivery.

On the other hand, the evolution of technology has not fully addressed the healthcare service delivery of many nurses. Runny (1) notes that nurses still find it difficult to handle the older-age patients. This is because these patience’s’ healthcare demand for higher academic expertise of which is lacking among most nurses. She points out that these patients normally develop complexities because of their ages and therefore require delicate medical healthcare services from higher medical expertise.

Doctors and Technology

According to Neil (102), technology has changed the general objective and perception of the public on doctors. He notes that unlike the past, where doctors were seen as noble, caring and compassionate members in the society, today’s technology has changed such qualities with a great decrease in the general outstanding performance of doctors in the society. Lim (2) points out that even though advancement in technology has enabled doctors to specialize in their medical practices, they have in turn become bias towards offering their treatment services. He notes that many doctors have taken advantage of the expensive nature of the advanced technology to hike the cost of their treatment services.

As pointed out by Neil (92), doctors have actively used technology as an instrument that helps them in designing appropriate experiments for their medical research works. Lim (3) agrees with Neil noting that today’s advanced technology has enabled doctors to engage in sophisticated experiments that has resulted into more powerful drugs. However, Baynes (1) noting that the doctors have also not escaped the negative effects of technology, observes that a number of them have also been charged and jailed for poisoning their patients with powerful drugs.

According to Runny (1), technology has also negatively affected the relationship between doctors and patients as doctors are finding it difficult to maintain professional relationships with their patients. This is especially so in cases where patients have varying opinion towards doctors in regards to their personality as posted on the internet. Runny (1) notes that in certain cases, this has made it difficult for the doctor to offer nursing services to the patients as their services are questionable.

Conclusion

In, conclusion, it is, thus, clear that technology has impacted both negatively on the nurses, doctors, and even the patients. However, the contributions of technology in the field of nursing cannot be ignored. Technology has improved such areas like maintenance of clear patient databases and sharing information between the nurses and other medical practitioners. However, caution should be taken when using the technologies, especially in the social sites so that the medical practitioners are not affected negatively. Furthermore, for the medical practitioners to continue taking advantage of the ever-advancing technology there is need for them to be continuously trained on the same.