Imagine you’re 90 years old, a grandmother of three and your husband can be old and sick. You need assistance with almost every thing, getting out of a chair, going to the toilet, getting dressed, eating, and remembering your medications. Despite the rise in life expectancy, aging will not be kind, and you’re feeling a burden in your husband and the health care professionals who take care of you.
Now, imagine being presented with a robot that will help with a lot of this stuff – from going to the toilet to keeping track of your doctor's appointments. This robot's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) learns your preferences, knows your birthday and remembers your name. It sounds great, right? You will now not feel like a burden to your spouse or rely upon caregivers to enable you to shower.
This scenario may sound like the start of a sci-fi movie, however it's closer to reality than you may think. In Japan, in early 2018, a Survey It was revealed that elderly people living at home would like a robot caregiver over humans.
of Japan The “super-aging” societyWhere the proportion of elderly people is growing faster than anywhere else on the earth. Immense pressure on the workforce. Advances in technology are stepping up to handle these challenges, but in addition current issues for the world The greatest health profession: Nurses
Perhaps understandably, the thought of ​​robot nurses raises concerns in a career built on the concept of “caring” that is commonly related to human interaction.
Fresh the study Indications from Australia are that exposing nursing students to the capabilities of technology raises concerns and concerns about care becoming less personal. The authors suggest that nurses should be prepared to “redefine their nursing identity” and call for a “paradigm shift of nursing in the digital world.”
This tension was also evident in April 2024, when a whole bunch of American nurses protested. Against using AI in hospitals. Protesters argue that AI tools are untested, unregulated and devalue nursing practice.
“No nurse should be replaced by a robot,” said one nurse, a sentiment that highlights a fundamental problem in health care today: Nurses are uncertain. About their role in a The digital world.
This uncertainty seems to have led some nurses to reject technologies – AI-based tools and robotics – that would improve patients' lives. A key query emerging from these tensions is what does “care” mean within the digital age?
Defining a universally agreed concept of caring could be difficult, but those that use the term often give attention to the human and emotional components of caring. In an influential book on nursing, Nursing as caring: A model for transformative practice (1993), defined caring as: “an essential characteristic and expression of being human. The belief that all individuals, by virtue of their humanity, care.”
This definition seems to rule out “care” provided by latest technology, similar to robots, as care within the true sense. But most individuals would probably agree that denying people access to chemical technologies, similar to life-saving drugs, could be considered unjustified and “uncaring”.
The capabilities of latest digital technologies, similar to robotics, which might perform roles traditionally performed by human nurses, appear to elicit a special response from nurses. This could also be on account of preconceived notions of care as a distinctly human focus, and since robots can provide tasks, similar to providing social support to the elderly, considered “human nature”.
While robots and AI look like useful in Japan, the worldwide nursing career might have to rethink the role of technology in healthcare. As people live longer and grow to be more depending on health care professionals, a shrinking proportion of working-age people in lots of developed countries struggle to satisfy caregiving demands. Is. Digital technologies will help mitigate this challenge, but resistance to robotics and AI in nursing is compounding the issue of overstretching healthcare services.
However, historically, the healthcare sector has at all times been slow to adopt latest technology. For example, within the UK, using the Secretary of Health Co was banned. Fax machines In 2018-19, years after the appearance of email. Deadline to phase out fax machines by 2020 was also recalledHundreds are still in use as of late 2022.
In the case of robots, an identical reluctance might not be acceptable to the growing number of people that may profit from these technologies, especially as the standard and capabilities of those technologies proceed to extend. The way forward for nursing lies in integrating human compassion with robotic efficiency, ensuring that everybody receives the care they need.
Florence NightingaleIn her book, The Founding of Modern Nursing Notes on Nursing, described his view of the essence of nursing care. Vague because it was, one thing was clear on this vision, that nurses should give attention to the patient's needs first and put all other concerns aside.
I say that these women were called to be nurses – first for the great of their sick, and second only to think about what it was their 'place' – and ladies who wait on housekeepers, or For the charwoman to do that, when their patients suffer, they wouldn’t have to make a nurse.
It was 164 years ago.
As we stand on the point of a brand new era in health care, defined by highly capable machines, it’s critical that the nursing career overcomes knowledgeable identity crisis or confusing notions of care within the face of technological advancements. I don't let that get in the best way.
Nightingale advises that we should always not wait while our patients suffer. Embracing innovation while maintaining nursing's core value—putting the needs of the patient first—can be certain that its approach continues to evolve, meeting the needs of today's and tomorrow's patients.