Presenter
Maeve Howett
PhD, APRN, CPNP-PC, IBCLC, CNE
Clinical Professor
Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Nursing Education
Time: TBA
Location: TBA
Description
Nurses’ use of IT begins in nursing school and is in every area of contemporary patient care, from the delivery room to hospice and palliative care. Electronic health records have added a layer of complexity while improving patient safety and quality of care. Information innovations at the bedside include tracking devices inserted into patient beds to monitor fluid and temperature changes, high tech protective uniforms that collect nurse data tested and improved during the recent Ebola outbreaks, tiny catheters collecting data inserted into premature infants’ brains, personalized medication pumps that track data over weeks and months, bar code scanning of medications and breast milk, and remote video-conferencing of specialist and primary care, among other examples. While healthcare is moving rapidly to improve quality and patient safety by embracing technology, nurses struggle to keep patients at the center of their work and struggle to ensure that the high tech does not replace the high touch care that patients and families need for healing.