Patients need a nurse, not a computer

Nurses Activism

Published

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YthF86QDOXYHealthcare is changing. And not for the better. Behind all the pretty pictures on billboards showing a world where everyone "Thrives" there is a sinister reality. As local hospitals and clinics are gobbled up by giant corporations, the theme is cut costs (by which they mean your care) and raise their profits.

TV ads tell you that you can get your diagnosis at home via Telemedicine without ever setting foot in the emergency room. And, if you go to the hospital, be prepared to get pushed out soon, often when still at your most sick and vulnerable, to a nursing home or your own home where the burden for complex medical care falls on your family.

Hospitals spend your patient care dollars on Wall Street investments, unproven technology, marketing or buying up other hospitals, while cutting those staff at the bedside, registered nurses, who are your first line of protection and your last line of defense.

Specializes in Critical Care,Recovery, ED.

EMRs are going through growing pains and won't be perfected anytime soon. Will they save money? Probably on a macro level as opposed to a micro level. Most Nurses work on a micro level in healthcare and see the dangers of what poor computer software/ efficacy does to patients, or the risks they are exposed to.

The order of the day is to cut costs, and unfortunately Nursing is considered a cost as opposed to a revenue generator. Until that view point of Nursing changes we will never get the Nurse/patient ratio and ancillary staff help needed to consistently provide safe and efficient healthcare.

Why are patients admitted to the hospital? Mainly to receive care from an RN, not to many other valid reasons other then that.

Thanks for this.

Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Emergency.

I wish I had a picture for you guys! Lmao, I kid you not! In our ER there is literally a freaking robot with a camera on top of it's head that will roll into your room and let a "specialist" examine you via essentially a skype session!! I saw FRANK and was like o____o... I'm not saying that's all bad, but you can't listen to lung sounds over skype :[

Oh let me add: When I did my Psych rotation in school, at our CSB, they had therapist doing video conferencing with patients. It looked like people getting mental health advice over YouTube. I know it can still be effective. I just always think about we learn that "touch is an essential therapeutic tool." u_u

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

Technology, like any other development, has proper and improper usage. For me, what's more concerning is, when systems are down, people become lost and care suffers. Development of downtime procedures--used when critical systems are down for more than one hour in my workplace--are mandatory. However, the one time my facility had to use it, many of the nurses and interns had no idea how to use paper. I was trained in a paper- ordering environment, so I spent much of my time explaining to some of the nurses and interns how to write and sign off on paper orders and communicate with pharmacy and sign off MARS. It didn't go well.

This discussion's title says it all. Excellent points. Patients need nurses who sincerely care for them.

Specializes in Critical Care,Recovery, ED.

And some medical schools are no longer teaching the use of a stethoscope but relying on ultra sound to pick up lung sounds and heart beats.

Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.
I wish I had a picture for you guys! Lmao, I kid you not! In our ER there is literally a freaking robot with a camera on top of it's head that will roll into your room and let a "specialist" examine you via essentially a skype session!! I saw FRANK and was like o____o... I'm not saying that's all bad, but you can't listen to lung sounds over skype :[

Oh let me add: When I did my Psych rotation in school, at our CSB, they had therapist doing video conferencing with patients. It looked like people getting mental health advice over YouTube. I know it can still be effective. I just always think about we learn that "touch is an essential therapeutic tool." u_u

Is it one of these?

0011RobotDoctor_zpsfefcea1f.jpg

Physician robot to begin making rounds - Computerworld

Specializes in Emergency Department Nursing.
I wish I had a picture for you guys! Lmao, I kid you not! In our ER there is literally a freaking robot with a camera on top of it's head that will roll into your room and let a "specialist" examine you via essentially a skype session!! I saw FRANK and was like o____o... I'm not saying that's all bad, but you can't listen to lung sounds over skype

So does mine!!! The thing is part of a contract my institution has with a larger stroke center... so my ed doc will do the initial medical assessment, determine that the patient requires the attention of a Neurologist and FRANK comes into play.

Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

FRANK doesn't require lunch or bathroom breaks, he doesn't need health benefits and won't be looking for overtime. FRANK depends upon lowly flesh and blood health professionals to actually accomplish anything of value for the patient.

The cost cutting is definitely affecting the patient number 1, and how we as RN's can appropriately do our jobs. There is a budget on supplies, so we are asked use this or that sparingly when in order for the product to work you need to use it abundantly. The cuts in staff make it almost impossible to get to know your patients to the depth that helps us to read their health status.

I do not know what the resolve to this issue will be or will come to in the future? I do know this; however, I am glad I am a nurse if something unfortunate happens to one of my family because I can provide what they need as far as care goes after they are booted from the hospital.

Specializes in ICU, Geriatrics, Float Pool.

Will the robot wipe up poop and hold their hands?

Specializes in Critical care, tele, Medical-Surgical.

The Trouble with Kaiser's Technology

Nurses say the healthcare giant's new Oakland Medical Center is plagued by dangerous equipment malfunctions, ineffective communication systems, and chronic understaffing.

In July, Kaiser Permanente opened its new $1.3 billion Oakland Medical Center-a twelve-story hospital that features a wide range of advanced technological features...

... While officials with Kaiser, the largest nonprofit healthcare provider in the country, have touted the Oakland hospital's state-of-the-art features, nurses said that Kaiser has become increasingly reliant on technology in an effort to cut costs and maintain dangerously low staffing levels.

Nurses say they often do not receive adequate training on how to use unfamiliar equipment, and in some cases, the technology itself is fundamentally flawed.

More troubling, nurses said that multiple technologies in the new hospital-including a critical cardiac monitoring system-are malfunctioning on a regular basis, putting patients at risk.

And despite Kaiser's investments in a modernized facility with cutting-edge technology, the hospital has been plagued this summer by a lack of basic supplies and functioning equipment, such as epidural pumps for mothers in labor, according to numerous nurses.

"There's incredible technology in this new hospital. It's beautiful. But we are still having major, major problems and we don't have enough nurses," said Katy Roemer, a Kaiser Oakland maternity nurse. "This technology does not replace what patients need in the hospital. ... They are denying care to the patients who need it."...

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-trouble-with-kaisers-technology/Content?oid=4067393

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