What do you find helpful in doing your job? What technology (from whatever historical era:D) has impressed you?
One of my favorites is Caller ID...no kidding- without time off, regular shifts became lousy. Before Caller ID, you either had an answering machine (not all that common until the 90s) or had to take your chances and pick up the phone. :chair:
Accuchek machines....even in the mid-80s, acute care hospitals didn't all have blood sugar machines on each unit...we dipped 'stix' in urine and held it up to a chart to look for a color changes...the big problem with those is that you got urine from who knows when and had to base insulin doses on that...not to accurate, but all we had. The accucheks (or whatever brand) were a BIG deal :)
I have to say that the television makes my life easier.
Turn on some white-trash programming (Springer, COPS, Judge Judy)
and no more visits to the nurses station asking "when am I going to be seen",
"can I get something for pain".
Such an amazing difference putting TVs in every exam room...
I agree....2 things I find 'interesting':
1. How many patients ask "do I have to pay to use the TV?"
2. Just how trashy those fake courtroom shows are (Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, Divorce Court, etc...). Pretty sad commentary on society that their are so many of them.
I think electronic charting/CPOE is a HUGE improvement to the world of nursing and healthcare. The other day the computers when down and everything was way, way slower....not to mention we had to interpret doctors' handwriting.
Bedscales. We used to have to either use the lift-type scale, or get the patient OOB to weigh them. Now we can just weigh them right in the bed! Also much improvement has been made in colostomy systems and tube-feeds. We used to have to use the colostomy equipment that you had to paste to the skin with every change; now you can just snap on a new bag! I also like the much improved method of moving an ETT from side to side of the patient's mouth. No more re-taping the tube every time you move it. I do miss the glass mercury thermometers, tho. They seemed to be most accurate.
ISTATS for a quick troponin or for a chem12 instead of waiting around for the patients labs to come back before you send them over for a CT w IV contrast
Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
Computerized charting is a great tool, when it is created by those in the medical field. A wonderful tool is the touch screen. I can chart with great speed if I have a touch screen. One of the hospitals that I was assigned to when I was a travel nurse had these types of computers, and I LOVED it.
Although not really related to nursing, but more to surgery itself, the electrical GIA and TA staplers for bowel resections are awesome!
I would have to say that unequivocally, the best way that nursing has improved is its constant evolution with evidence based research.
Yeah... I miss the glass thermometers. The only time I questioned the accuracy of one was with a patient whose temp went from 99.0 to over 107.0 in about 30 minutes....I took a rectal temp 4 times before calling the doc...my charge nurse "gave" me the CNA to run for fans, wet towels, and ice packs for the armpits and groin ... The stupid MD shows up (after3-4 calls asking for fluids and an ICU transfer) and asks why the nurses are sh*#@ng all over themselves over the temp...thought nobody on the floor could take a TEMP- made me mad:devil::devil: When he saw the line of thermometers I'd used, he finally got the idea that DUH, this was serious. Ends up the guy had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (in TX- LOL) from a trip to CO a few weeks earlier. His temp started coming down, and got to the ICU with a 105.0- and was talking again. SCARY :)
I've checked the accuracy of the electronic ones many times...and there was significant variances (like enough to question the need to do blood cultures...ended up going with the higher reading on that to be safe).
I miss double checking the BP things, too... I like them- just think it never hurts to do a 'real' BP before calling the doc, to make sure I have all info needed...JMHO
:devil: When he saw the line of thermometers I'd used, he finally got the idea that DUH, this was serious. Ends up the guy had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (in TX- LOL) from a trip to CO a few weeks earlier. His temp started coming down, and got to the ICU with a 105.0- and was talking again. SCARY :)
psu_213, BSN, RN
3,878 Posts
I agree....2 things I find 'interesting':
1. How many patients ask "do I have to pay to use the TV?"
2. Just how trashy those fake courtroom shows are (Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, Divorce Court, etc...). Pretty sad commentary on society that their are so many of them.
I think electronic charting/CPOE is a HUGE improvement to the world of nursing and healthcare. The other day the computers when down and everything was way, way slower....not to mention we had to interpret doctors' handwriting.