Being an international student and coming from a developing country, the use of technology in America amazes me. It was overwhelming as well as astonishing for me to see the wide use of technology in the hospitals. I was just amazed to see how technology has become so important in medical field. We go for our clinicals to Overlake, and on the first day of orientation, I was surprised to see the wide range of the use of technology. Right from electronic thermometers, IV pumps to medication administration, technology is used. Even charting is done electronically. Computers are everywhere. The x-ray department and the OR were all so well equipped with the latest technology that my eyes kept travelling all around the unit. More than being stressed about working with patients, I was worried about being able to operate the machines. Working here is a total different experience than what I had in India. It was funny once how I asked my clinical instructor, “Don’t we need to calculate the drops per minute for IV infusion?” She smiled and replied, “No the IV pumps do that, but we need to know how to set the rate and time.” I was thinking to myself, “Wow! In India I had to do all the calculations.”
Technology has advantages as well as disadvantages. Technology does save a lot of time and energy. Though, I still feel there should be a balance so that nurses don’t entirely depend on technology, but focus on giving their patients quality care. As I mentioned earlier, technology does save time and energy, but it can’t love and care for a patient, nor can it empathize with patients and families. Technology is good to the extent that it helps nurses work more efficiently, but not to the extent that nurses need to depend on technology to care for a patient.
As a nurse, my desire is to care for my patient and fulfill my calling to serve God by serving His people. I hope a day does not come where we nurses will be replaced by a new invention in technology i.e. robots. I cannot imagine robots taking care of patients and am sure patients would not like that either, hopefully not. It’s great to see how the world is progressing in terms of technology, but when it comes to caring for a patient, we should keep in mind that no matter how much we appreciate technology for our convenience, nothing can replace human touch.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Prioritizing care! 9th Blog
Finally, we are in our last week of clinicals before Christmas break and it is unbelievable how time flew by. I can say that my experience in Overlake thus far has been a wonderful experience. The nurses i worked with were very helpful and taught me how to operate efficiently on the floor. I got to work with patients with different diagnosis, but mainly with patients suffering from respiratory infections.
Today, i had a very interesting day at clinicals. My patient did not speak english and i was excited instead of being nervous. I wanted something challenging and here was that opportunity. I went into my patients room while she was still asleep. I gently woke her to take her vitals, but she seemed agitated. In broken english she said that she did not get enough sleep last night due to pain and nose bleed. Meanwhile, her daughter came to visit her and she translated on behalf of her. I asked her to rate her pain and she said that it was a 9 on a 10 scale. I knew that her bleeding was caused due to her nasal mucosa turning dry becasue of dry oxygen which was being administered via the nasal canula. I knew that the patient needs to be getting oxygen, but at that time she was not receiving any oxygen supplementation. I checked her vitals and her oxygen saturation was 87 %. I checked for signs and symtoms of distress, but patient had no such signs and symtoms. Even then I placed her in a fowlers position. I went and got her a ventilator face mask as suggested by my instructor as that would not irritate her nasal mucosa. The patient was hesitant to put on the face mask, but after explaining that this would not hurt her or cause any bleeding, she finally put on the mask. I checked her saturation after that and it was 94%. Then i took care of her pain by giving her ice pack and tylenol. I kept monitoring her saturation and it was stable. Her pain level reduced to 5 after an hour and half. She was feeling much better and was able to sleep. In class, as we are taught to prioritze according to ABC, that is what i tried and implemented before taking care of her pain.
Today, i had a very interesting day at clinicals. My patient did not speak english and i was excited instead of being nervous. I wanted something challenging and here was that opportunity. I went into my patients room while she was still asleep. I gently woke her to take her vitals, but she seemed agitated. In broken english she said that she did not get enough sleep last night due to pain and nose bleed. Meanwhile, her daughter came to visit her and she translated on behalf of her. I asked her to rate her pain and she said that it was a 9 on a 10 scale. I knew that her bleeding was caused due to her nasal mucosa turning dry becasue of dry oxygen which was being administered via the nasal canula. I knew that the patient needs to be getting oxygen, but at that time she was not receiving any oxygen supplementation. I checked her vitals and her oxygen saturation was 87 %. I checked for signs and symtoms of distress, but patient had no such signs and symtoms. Even then I placed her in a fowlers position. I went and got her a ventilator face mask as suggested by my instructor as that would not irritate her nasal mucosa. The patient was hesitant to put on the face mask, but after explaining that this would not hurt her or cause any bleeding, she finally put on the mask. I checked her saturation after that and it was 94%. Then i took care of her pain by giving her ice pack and tylenol. I kept monitoring her saturation and it was stable. Her pain level reduced to 5 after an hour and half. She was feeling much better and was able to sleep. In class, as we are taught to prioritze according to ABC, that is what i tried and implemented before taking care of her pain.
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