The document discusses various topics related to the interaction between patients and medical technology in a hospital setting. It addresses how medical technology has advanced hospital care but can also distance medical staff from patients. It emphasizes the importance of humanizing patient care even in a technologically advanced environment. The document also discusses barcode technology and how it can improve patient safety by reducing human error in areas like medication management and record keeping. Finally, it covers several aspects of nursing care as an art including touch, communication, and creating a pleasant healing environment for patients.

1. - The patient and
Medical Technology
Study Unit 9.4
- The Nursing
Personnel
Study Unit 9.5
By C. Settley

2. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
• Formal hospital admission means exposure to medical
technology
• Rapid advancement in medical equipment
• Influenced hospital care costs and quality of care
• Every department has increased where medical
technology is concerned
• Examples: Scans, tumor detection, tomography (x-rays
and ultrasounds)
• Scans: mainly done to asses the function of organs
• Ultrasounds: a wide variety of diseases or
complaints can be investigated

3. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
• Most sophisticated equipment usually found
in intensive units
• Medical technology influences the intimacy of human
contact
• Increases social distance between medical staff and the
patient
• Beneficial to both the patient and nursing professional
therefore the nurse must humanize it to preserve the
patient’s dignity
• Even when dying- patient should be treated with dignity

4. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
• Difficult to ensure patient safety in a medical
technological intensive environment
• Benefit from our customized approach that analyzes
your current culture, infrastructure, practices, and
technology
• Improve patient safety and minimize human error

5. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
- Thousands of mistakes every year can be attributed to
human error, which is why the adoption of barcode
technology has become so critical.
- According to the World Health Organisation (WHO),
more than 50% of all countries do not implement basic
policies to promote rational use of medicines and in
developing countries, less than 40% of patients in the
public sector and 30% in the private sector are treated
according to clinical guidelines

6. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
- Barcode benefits
- Simply put, barcode technology eliminates the need for
traditional keyboard data entry. It requires conversion of
an identifier to a symbolic representation namely, the
barcode.
- The barcode can then be printed on or affixed to an item
and subsequently read by a light source and fed into a
computer.
- Barcode solutions can be used in a variety of healthcare
applications, including producing hospital wristbands and
labelling for pharmaceutical unit-dose medications, IV
mixtures, lab and pathology specimens, blood products,
asset tags, file labels and more.

7. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
- Pharmaceutical companies can locate and track each dose of
medication produced in vast batches; hospitals can monitor and
utilise equipment with greater efficiency; and healthcare staff can
create and maintain healthcare records more efficiently.
- The rate of accuracy at which information can be captured is
exceptional.
- Barcode scanning equipment is much faster than the human eye
and notably more accurate.
- They eliminate the chance for errors in recording data with the
added benefit of doing so in a fraction of the time required for
manual entry
- They are easy to use. Unskilled operators can learn and operate the
equipment in a fairly short time.

8. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
• Importantly, hospitals are expected to avoid litigation
associated with preventable adverse events reducing
malpractice liability insurance premiums, and increase
receipts from more accurate billing procedures
• Hospitals also benefit from the marketing and patient
preference benefits associated with quality care and
industry leadership in the adoption of new technologies
and clinical processes.
• Less obvious, but of equal importance, are the collateral
benefits of barcoding to nursing and pharmacist
productivity, charge capture, inventory management,
asset utilisation, commodity tracing and tracking, and the
market value of patient safety leadership.

9. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
• Alarm Coverage Review—A hospital had several near
misses related to delayed responses to telemetry
alarms. The hospital was very concerned about missed
alarms, nurse desensitization to alarms due to alarm
overload, the high number of nuisance alarms (e.g.,
caused by artifact), and alarm audibility at the ends of
long hallways in the telemetry area.

10. The interaction between the patient
and Medical Technology
• Ultimately, the factor that emerges as most important is,
of course, the vast improvement in the quality of patient
care and improved efficiency that leads to delivering
better service and reducing costs.

11. The Nursing Personnel
• Heterogenous in hospital
• According to statistics, about 70% of nurses are married

12. STUDENT NURSES AS
ADOLESCENTS
• Majority of nurses are adolescents. Therefore at a
difficult time in their lives
• Professional education takes place at the same time that
transition from adolescents to adulthood takes place
• Uncertain position in the hierarchy of the organisation
• - help and support adult patients
• - force them to take medicine
• - support the dying: can be traumatic.
• Self confidence in this period of adolescence
• Stressfull conditions may tend to engage in
activities/psychological to compensate
• Diets, tired and listlessness

13. STUDENT NURSES AS
ADOLESCENTS
• The self image of students changes constantly
• Rapid professional socialization. Incorporation of new
norms and values
• Emotional instability of adolescents occurs. Refers to
mood swings- it becomes stable later in career.
Traumatic experiences exacerbate this phenomenon.
• Adaption of new environment, residence, responsibilities,
being away from home. The student needs to adapt to
hospital routine, irregular working hours, class, having to
work over weekends. The nursing student is required to
do the ‘dirty work’ until competent skills have been
developed

14. STUDENT NURSES AS
ADOLESCENTS
• Powerful student cultures develop
• Difficult adjustments
• Homesickness, poor study habits and personal problems

15. THE NURSE AS A WORKING
MOTHER
• Working married nurses constitute the largest group in
the profession
• This group of nurses experience the same problems as
any other woman, with the burden of physical and
emotional aspects
• This includes husband-wife relationships, working
irregular hours, night shift, children
• The responsibility of managing a home
• Spiritual

16. THE STUDENT NURSE AS
A SINGLE PARENT
• From an employers point of view- the issue of the
working mother having to stay home when child is sick
• Shifts
• Parental duties

17. THE NURSING PROFESSIONAL
AND STRESS
• Nursing is a stressful profession
• No need to be working in an intensive unit to experience
this
• Due to tremendous responsibilities
• Coping with occurrences such as death, pain and
suffering- emotionally exhausting
• Contributes to personnel stress
• Trauma units
• Support systems and the manner in which they are being
used

18. THE NURSING PROFESSIONAL
AND STRESS
• Support systems vary according to the situation
• Peer groups, friends, referral
• Direct support- expressions of loyalty, information
sharing, advise, encouragement, positive/negative
feedback
• Emotional involvement can be exhausting
• Without losing warmth and humanity; ‘distance’ should
be maintained
• Too much emotional involvement influences objectivity

19. THE MALE STUDENT NURSE IN
A PREDOMINANTLY FEMALE
PROFESSION
- Stigma
- Female role as carer
- Adaptation in predominantly female career

20. NURSING CARE-
A DEVELOPING ART. Page 215
• During training, the student nursing professional must
begin to form his/her own ideas on how to establish a
correct, unique nursing-professional-patient relationship
• To benefit both of these role players
• Committed presence
• Supporting a patient when he/she admits to pain
• Render proper assistance
• Emotional support
• Holistically and comprehensive nursing care

21. NURSING CARE-
A DEVELOPING ART
• Touch
• Instrumental behavior
• Eg full wash /assisting in washing a patient, massaging
• Bonding and support
• Committed presence initiates this usually
• Touch is the physical presence
• Touch can never be overemphasized
• Starts during infancy
• The empathetic touch as a nonverbal action alleviates a
patient’s pain and anxiety

22. NURSING CARE-
A DEVELOPING ART
• Obviously touch is an invasive and intrusive action
• Eg if a patient cries- no harm in giving a spontaneous
hug or hold hand
• Sincerity
• Pediatric nurses should know that touch is even more
important when nursing children
• Touch aids in the recovery process
• Nursing professional should have insight in when to
exhibit this action

23. NURSING CARE-
A DEVELOPING ART
• Attentive therapeutic listening
• Acquired skill to listen attentively
• Remember that patients do not open up easily
• Gain trust
• Take note on what patient says
• Some patients prefer to disclose their needs and
anxieties in religious ways
• Confidence should be gained by patients to disclose
information

24. NURSING CARE-
A DEVELOPING ART
• Tone of voice
• Approach
• Encourage the patient to verbalise any worries and fears
• Exchange thoughts in a professional manner
• Communication skills
• Essential
• Make patient feel and sense that he/she is important
• Attitude
• When conveying information that is important
• When unable to provide adequate relief from
stressors/pain

25. NURSING CARE-
A DEVELOPING ART
• Communicational strategies:
• 1) pretentiousness on prognosis
• 2) small portion of information is communicated
• 3) bad news is conveyed to family rather than the patient
self
• 4) activities of no value are being carried out- false
impressions
• Above is in contrary on what has been discussed

26. NURSING CARE-
A DEVELOPING ART
• Paralinguistic communication- pitch and volume of voice
• Kinesic communication- body language
• Proximic communication- space between individuals
• Humour
• Approach with sensitivity
• Appropriate/inappropriate
• Encouraging environmental beauty
• Pleasant environment= positive effect on process of recovery
• Colors of walls, curtains, floors, ceiling, basins, toilets, plants, music,
books

27. NURSING CARE-
A DEVELOPING ART
• Encouraging hope
• Difficult task to encourage a patient and to give a sick patient hope
• Important task
• Not encouraging a patient to be hopeful but in terms of encouraging
a paralyzed patient to go for physiotherapy, etc.
• Prayer
• Personal matter
• Allow for space and time
• Common sense depending ward situation
• Request for spiritual leaders

28. References
• Du Toit, D. & le Roux, E. (2014). Nursing sociology. 5th
ed. Pretoria: Van Schaik.