"Meet Penelope," Dr. Treat said, motioning toward a robotic arm poised over a set of surgical tools. "She is one hot little number."
And Penelope is looking for a job.
She is meant to replace the scrub nurse, the person in the operating room who hands the surgeon the tools of surgery. Responding to the ever-widening shortage of nurses in the country, and looking to deal with a problem that frustrated him as a working surgeon, Dr. Treat and his team of tech whizzes are working feverishly to get Penelope ready for her public debut.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital has agreed to test Penelope in March in the operating room on a simple removal of a benign cyst. If all goes well, Dr. Treat dreams of putting a Penelope in every hospital across the country.
"The robot should be able to do everything a nurse can," Dr. Treat said
[snip]
Typically, there are now two human nurses in the operating room, the circulating nurse and the scrub nurse, Dr. Treat said. The circulating nurse can move about the room, but the scrub nurse does not move from the surgeon's shoulder. She is there to do one thing: Get the doctor's tools.
[snip]
"There to do one thing?"
"Do everything a nurse can?"
"Replace the scrub nurse?"
:angryfire :angryfire :angryfire
Letters to the editor, anyone?
Granted, this is neat technology, but would you want Penelope scrubbing on your loved one's operation? I think not! It's inventor and the author of this article seem to lack any clue at all about what the role of a nurse in the O.R. is. It's offensive.
Can the robot retract/suction/etc?
Can the robot react to different stimuli in the environment to see what is going on and anticipate the surgeon's needs?
Can the robot "give me what I need, not what I ask for?"
