New York Times: Robots can replace nurses!

lapappey · Jan 20, 2005 03:33 PM

:angryfire

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/te...y/18nurse.html

[snip laudatory BS]

"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?"
Can the robot ...

You get the picture.

*Angie O'Plasty, RN* · Jan 20, 2005, 03:38 PM

I sent a copy of the article to Sandy Summers at the Center for Nursing Advocacy. If you check the site in a couple of days, I'm pretty sure there'll be an organized letter-writing campaign about this article.

*Marie_LPN, RN* · Jan 20, 2005, 03:41 PM

Wonder if administrations will make the robots wear white too?

*Marie_LPN, RN* · Jan 20, 2005, 03:45 PM

Besides, what would happen if Penelope shorted out during the case. 'Should be' doesn't scream "150 percent" to me.

Forget the letter to the editor, my letter's going in the direction of the doctor who thinks that a robot can care and work like a scrub nurse does. He is obviously NOT thinking of what's best for a patient.

lapappey · Jan 20, 2005, 03:45 PM

I wonder if the cardiac guys would throw things at "Penelope" if "she" hands them the wrong instrument ...

And keeping things like neuro microscopes sterile is a pain in the *** ... how about a frigging robot arm!!!

lapappey · Jan 20, 2005, 03:47 PM

And he was a "practicing surgeon", too.

Must have had his head so pretty far up his $$$ while operating.

Originally Posted by Marie_LPN

Besides, what would happen if Penelope shorted out during the case. 'Should be' doesn't scream "150 percent" to me.

Forget the letter to the editor, my letter's going in the direction of the doctor who thinks that a robot can care and work like a scrub nurse does. He is obviously NOT thinking of what's best for a patient.

*Marie_LPN, RN* · Jan 20, 2005, 03:52 PM

And like a robot is going to be able to understand and comprehend a surgeon's mumbling.

lapappey · Jan 20, 2005, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by Marie_LPN

And like a robot is going to be able to understand and comprehend a surgeon's mumbling.

LOL.

I worked with one who liked to keep up a monologue through the entire operation: about baseball, movies, music, whatever ... and then, without a missing a beat, would ask for something and then continue, without changing his tone of voice in the slightest.

"So I think, without a question, that Magnolia was the best, mosquito, movie of the year ... Tom Cruise's portrayal of, suction, the sex guru ..."

It was hard to keep from falling asleep through half the stuff this guy said, but boy, if you weren't paying attention, you were in for it an chewing-out that would continue until the patient was extubated and reversing ...

But I'll bet Penelope puts up with whatever the surgeons dish out ... just like a nice, submissive handmaiden had ought to ... uh ...

**jnette** · Jan 20, 2005, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by Marie_LPN

Wonder if administrations will make the robots wear white too?

... and only God knows what ELSE....

:stone

Yeh..guess they can throw their little tantrums then and not have to worry about a nurse ratting on them, eh? Or have to worry about the nurse's "moodiness" or lack of sense of humour, or heaven forbid, questioning anything the surgeon might do in there.... scary.

allamericangirl · Jan 20, 2005, 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by lapappey

:angryfire

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/te...y/18nurse.html

[snip laudatory BS]

"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?"
Can the robot ...

You get the picture.

Well if Penolope doesn't have to get the same education and pass the Nclex then no one else should have to either. :chuckle We can just all go to work as Nurses with no training straight off the street, if all you have to do to be a scrub nurse is hand instruments! So what's all this stuff about long waiting lists to get into Nursing School!?

Who couldn't just memorize the names and shapes of instruments and hand them to a Doctor? :angryfire

Doctors could more easily be replaced with robots than Nurses. Go to the Dr's. office, the Medical Assistant weighs, measures, and takes your temperature, has you scan your med insurance card, you Push the touch screen itemizing your symptoms on the "Dr. Robie Screen", push Finish and Diagose, Push Print YEAH!! Your done. You didn't have to wait 55 minutes in the exam room! You pay the gals at the desk and pick up your RX and you're done!

The only thing, Nurses, the AMA would never allow it to happen. Nurses had better quit fooling around, combine all of the individual groups that represent Nurses and get organized before it's too late.

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New York Times: Robots can replace nurses!

New York Times: Robots can replace nurses!

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