Sort of an open-ended poll for an assignment...

Goldenhare · Nov 13, 2005

Can you clarify? By technology, do you mean machinery and computers or new meds or new tests or what????????? You can show caring by making sure a diabetic understands his/her new insulin pump and how it works. Is that the kind of thing you mean?

EricTAMUCC-BSN, BSN, RN · Nov 13, 2005

You turn it into necessity, where would we be without the calculator?

mitchsmom · Nov 13, 2005

Can you clarify? By technology, do you mean machinery and computers or new meds or new tests or what????????? You can show caring by making sure a diabetic understands his/her new insulin pump and how it works. Is that the kind of thing you mean?

It's pretty broad, it could be anything - it's just a topic for a paper I'm doing... I have most of it done but it's not really long enough so I'm trolling for an extra theme or two to add in. Specific examples like yours or opinions/ideas on caring & technology are all welcomed!

My take in the paper is that these days, knowledge of technology should be viewed as another form of caring since it often represents the well-being of the patient. I also found studies that said that patients' ranked technological skills higher than traditional "caring" type skills, so that is another reason it should be viewed as a means of caring. Patients may view a competent nurse as a little less motherly and a little more savvy, it's not going away so we should combine it with our caring touch, etc. etc.

hbncns35 · Nov 14, 2005

Oh..............A girl after my own heart! I have done lots of research on this topic and I am actually presenting a nursing course to my faculty tommorow afternoon based on this subject. It seems that Dartmouth and Harvard actually have courses on Empathy to train their doctors to have better bedside manner. Nurses should also comply. It takes great social and interpersonal skills to stretch your emotional intelligence across 5-6 patients in an 8-12 hour period of time. Caring or compassion is essential to providing the facilitation of positive outcome and facilitation of healing. Also allowing yourself to be changed by patient circumstances allows you to grow and reap the rewards of nursing. Caring requires you to reach inside yourself and apply that concern to your patients regardless of time or mood constraints. Touching another human being has sometimes been overshadowed by technical concerns and applying what you know coupled with providing positive reinforcement can be overwhelming but not impossible. Nurses are masters of the proverbial juggling act and learn to provide compassion like a well oiled machine once they take the time to master themselves in the areas of physical, spiritual, emotional, and relationship intelligences. Acquiring knowledge in these areas and implementing and applying this enables for the nurse teacher to arise and effectively manage and influence their patients. At times nurses fail to understand their own emotions and mismanage them leaving patients to manage their own emotional selves. Working on your own self concept enables one to see and understand others' reactions and journies with their illnesses. In recent times their seems to be a question of whether or not caring is essential to nursing practice or not. Only in nursing can you find warm, kind, and consideration as an undercurrent to practice. It is rare but not plausible in business and other competitive careers. Nurses have the opportunity to create healing environments and thus further their own developments in the process. Nothing can compare to true human interaction which is the essence of the nursing profession. Hope that helps, this is truly one of my passions...................HB

KatieBell · Nov 14, 2005

You could argue that use of timesaving technology leaves more time for caring. An example is the pyxis- where apparently there used to be a lot of time spent counting narcotics, now the pyxis does that and no one has to hang about while the narc count is incorrect.

Also things like Orders that are entered via PDA are generally more readable than MD scribble. so that is a protective device, and the pda can be a time saving device also if you keep drug references on there.

Hope that helps.

papawjohn · Nov 14, 2005

Hey Y'all

I've also thought about this alot. Not in the vocabulary or at the depths of hbncns35, I guess. I'm really just an ol' Southern fella who fell into this Nursing business almost by accident. (There was this big recession and all the nurses I knew were working.)

But I happen to have the gift of empathy. And it has always seemed---well, almost poetic to see this struggling human being surrounded by the lines and wires and screens and alarms and automatic appliances that constitute a modern ICU. It seems to me that the gift of the good nurse is the ability to walk into the room and make eye contact with this sick, stuggling, often-lost and confused human being and to say, "I'm your nurse; I'm going to take care of YOU!"

I happen to love the nuances and intricacies of wave forms and lab values and the numbers that the ventilators give us. But I love them because they give me a way of seeing INTO THE BODY OF MY PATIENT. Are there bursts of V-Tach? I bet my Pt experiences palpitations, that he's scared by them and wonders if I can notice whatever is fluttering or throbbing in his chest. My task is not only to deal with the rhythm and monitor--it is also to deal with his fear and confusion. So when I add a Magnesium level to the AM lab work and send it down early, I relate what I do to my Pt's experience and fears and needs for confidence in me.

When the Swan numbers show the Wedge is going up (24--now 26!) and the Vent shows the Peak Inspiratory Pressure is going up too (30--now 34), I know there is a human being in there with the sensation of wet phlegm in his lungs and who knows that his airways are constricting and reacting to the irritation of Pulmonary Edema. A person I'm responsible for is experiencing a sense of 'smothering' and I bet that's a terrifying feeling. Part of what a good nurse does (other than giving lasix, adjusting oxygen, titrating dobutamine and tridil) is to reassure, comfort and give hope.

Without the knowledge that someone who has my commitment of caring is within all those numbers, there would only be an interesting but meaningless exercise kind of like a video game.

There are many around us who understand all the machinery and numbers better than we do. Pharmacists and Pulmonologists and Cardiologists and Surgeons all understand the "problem" presented by the Patient.

It is the particular gift given to us to understand that there is a Grandmother, or a Child, or the stuggling young Father of a new family who finds themselves facing frightening and confusing events that they have no control over and do not understand. We have to voluntarily say--"I am here to stand beside you, and I understand what's going on here. I have control of this situation. And YOU CAN TRUST ME."

It's a precious gift, when someone gives you their trust. And we receive it as a routine part of our 'normal' working life.

What a special job!!!!

Papaw John

EricTAMUCC-BSN, BSN, RN · Nov 14, 2005

I also found studies that said that patients' ranked technological skills higher than traditional "caring" type skills, so that is another reason it should be viewed as a means of caring.

Excellent point.

mitchsmom · Nov 15, 2005

Thanks for all your feedback - it did give me alot of ideas to start from!!!