help!!!!!!

RN BSN 2009 · Oct 7, 2007

anyone can help to solve my problem?
Question as below:
Critically disscuss the impact of advances in medical technology on patient care?

That question is extremely broad. Which class is this for?

Music in My Heart · Oct 7, 2007

How 'bout you answer your homework question for yourself and then post it here to solicit feedback?

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 7, 2007

This is one of my favorite subjects and I contemplate it a lot! I like to think about what would have been my fate (since I have a lot of medical problems) had I lived 100 years ago. I probably would have died before I even got to the age of 30. I recently had a pacemaker implanted for sick sinus syndrome. Without it I probably could expect that I would have died in my sleep since that seems to be when my heart rate dropped to it's lowest rates.

Antibiotics weren't developed until the 1940's. If you got a major infection before that time you were SOOL if your own immune system couldn't help you. Ladies died in childbirth and from complications of childbirth all the time prior to the development of better obstetrical care. One of the biggest killers in the frontier days was food poisoning. The invention of canning and pasteurization changed vital statistics on cause of death dramatically. Back in Biblical times leprosy (Hanson's disease) made you an outcast. Today it's totally manageable.

When I was a little girl in grade school the Sabin polio vaccine was discovered and distributed to us as a couple of drops on a cube of sugar. This was in the 60s. Now, polio is pretty much unheard of. But at that time it was a feared disease. Back in the early half of the 19th century, not too long ago, the iron lung is where you ended up if you had breathing problems and your lungs failed you. When ventilators were developed, the iron lung went to medical museums. There are a number of doctors who have distinguished themselves for the inventions they came up with: Dr. Jarvik (the artificial heart) and Dr. DeBakey (a number of inventions involving the heart) come to mind. CT scan wasn't around when I was a little girl, but today it's a common procedure. In 1975 I had a open (incision) cholecystectomy. Today that surgery is usually done by laparoscope. A lot of surgery that was once done by filleting you open is now done by scoping. It results in shorter hospital stays and quicker recovery times.

If you just sit and think about what we have today compared to what we didn't have 10, 20, 30, 40 or 100 years ago, you'll have your subject for your paper. Of course, some of the impact is going to be the saving of lives and the better quality of life that results. Other issues you might want to bring up in this paper is expense and cost since that is a big issue these days as well.

Anyway, I pulled up a couple of articles and you might want to do a search of "medical inventions":

http://www.killology.com/art_weap_sum_medical.htm - don't let the title scare you. There's are chart with a history of medical advancements that changed history
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmedical.htm

DanEMT, ASN, RN · Oct 7, 2007

How 'bout you answer your homework question for yourself and then post it here to solicit feedback?

LOL Well said!

leslie :-D · Oct 7, 2007

even 20 yrs ago, hiv/aids pts didn't have a chance.

today, it's considered a chronic disease, living many yrs.

leslie

leslie :-D · Oct 7, 2007

here's a link to help you out.

YOU can do the research...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/top25-medical.htm

leslie