Technological development has a dichotomous influence on the quality of healthcare in terms of patients’ therapy and relationships between nurses and healthcare professionals. At a societal level, technology can positively contribute to the information exchange between nurses, which will facilitate the patient treatment and will encourage the development of new efficient approaches for dealing with greater number of patients (Zuzelo et al., 2008).
In fact, there should be a balance between employing human approaches and high technology, placing an emphasis on psychological influence that technology might have on patients and nurses. Specifically, most research studies prove that technology introduction strengthens direct care process and improves the overall employed environment. Insufficient use of technical devices can create challenges for nurses, increasing a burden of new responsibilities for controlling the repair and maintenance of out-of-date technology.
Nurses engaged into the daily routine of manual recording of information about patients spend an incredible amount of time that could be spent on communication with patients, or the research process instead (Zuzelo et al., 2008). Direct patient care, therefore, is ensured as soon as nurses have information exchange systems at their disposal. Using online networks for information updating is also a useful tool because it does not only facilitate the process, but also minimizes the chance of transmitting inaccurate data.
Penetration of technology to a healthcare environment can also positively influence nursing team dynamics and enhance their collaborative approaches. In particular, as soon as the overall working process is fostered, nurses could pay closer attention to establishing fruitful cooperation between departments and improving cooperation that, in turn, leads to higher quality of healthcare delivery. Therefore, the practice of direct patient care might be improved significantly.
Despite the evident advances in nursing practice, technological expansion could still have a number of side effects. The pitfalls of technology implementation can occur for several reasons. To begin with, the design of the equipment does not always adhere to the ergonomic principles and human factors. It implies that the hospital should work out a consistent financial plan in which all expenditures should be considered before the equipment implementation (Powell-Cope, Nelson, and Patterson, 2008).
Second, the problems might relate to the inappropriate volume of new technological devices, their sophisticated nature, as well as ambiguous nature of technology in terms of its safety both for the personnel and for the patients.
Patient care technology directly deals with the treatment and medication control. Use of electronic records is another important aspect that guarantees how precisely the information is delivered from nurses to physicians. Poor technology interface with environment or patients and inappropriate plan for introducing new technologies have a negative impact on the overall delivery of healthcare services (Powell-Cope et al., 2008). Inadequacy in using state-of-the-art technology is often explained by nurses’ insufficient training and skeptical attitude to all novelties introducing to healthcare setting. This is of particular concern to experienced practitioners of greater age.
Indeed, age characteristics play an important role in perceiving technological shifts. In the context of nursing practice, technology is a challenging issue because it does not only introduce innovative changes to medical equipment, but also requires nurses to change their working style and adjust immediately to the proposed technologies. In the majority of cases, the training programs offered to nurses are not efficient and, as a result, technological expansion creates serious challenges for the transformation process.
References
Powell-Cope, G., Nelson, A. L., and Patterson, E. S., (2008). Chapter 50. Patient Care Technology and Safety. In R. G. Hughes. (Ed.). Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses, (pp. 207-220) US: AHRQ Publication.
Zuzelo, P. R., Gettis, C., Hansell, A. W., & Thomas, L. (2008). Describing the Influence of Technologies on Registered Nurses’ Work. Clinical Nurse Specialist, 22(3), 132-140.