Addressing the Imbalance between Technology Interaction and Patient Care

The nurses are found to spend more time on the computer compare to caring for the patient. This is evident from the study of Higgins et al., (2017) which mentions that 1/3rd of the time is spend by the nurses for interacting with technology whereas only 16% of the time is spent by them to interact and care for the patients. This imbalance is of major concern because the lack of communication and involvement in direct care by the nurses for the patients would make them unable to determine the specific needs and demands of the patients to be fulfilled. Moreover, it would lead the nurses deliver hindered quality care to the patients which would deteriorate their well-being (Pepito and Locsin, 2019). Thus, to lead a project to address the imbalance created, the following actions are to be taken for and by the nurses to ensure quality care to be delivered to the patients:

Setting Time boundary: The time boundary for use of computer is to be set for the nurses so that they do not spend most of their time online searching for care information and avoiding effective time investment in delivering quality care. Moreover, the time boundary would make the nurses remain aware of the amount of time they are allowed to invest on computers so that they can strategically plan their searching of information to gather data regarding it within the limited time and avoid wastage (Bergey et al., 2019). The study by Stephens et al., (2017) informs that development of time scheduling is baseline for enhanced productivity and success. This is because it ensures balance at work and assist in setting effective plan to develop desired outcome. Thus, setting time boundary or time scheduling of computer use for nurses is important.

Restrict use of Technology to place: The computers are allowed to be used by nurses in separate places within the hospital and not near the care environment of the patients. This is because it would provide delayed access to the nurses to use computer and spend more time to be invested in taking care of the patients. Moreover, the nurses are avoided to be used mobile during caring for the patients which is part of the technology unlike there is medical need or emergency to use the device for better care of the service user. The restriction of technology use such as computer and mobile to place would lead the nurses to avoid feeling the urge to check social media status or other inappropriate things at any time.

Promoting tech-free days: In the nursing environment, the hospitals are to promote a single tech-free day in two weeks for the nurses to be followed when they would avoid using the computer or other technological device for nurse’s own reason expect for patient’s needs and care. The action is to be established under strict surveillance of the manager who would ensure no computers are used by nurses for personal need.

Balance computer use: The nurses reports greater investment of time on the computer due to lack of practical and theoretical information many times while caring for the patient. This leads them to search the query on the computer to be resolved which increases their time investment less for actual care of the patient. Thus, the presence of detailed protocols of all care are to be presented to the nurses at work and experienced professionals are to be present to resolve queries raised during care for the patient. This is because it would make the nurses avoided to use computer to seek answer for the query and show avoidance of spending effective time in actual care of the patient.

Strategic use of computer: In nursing, the use of computers allows easy access to information required by the nurses in gathering information for better care of the patient. It also helps them to maintain electronic health record of patients that can be easily accessed by physicians to delivery and plan care for the patient with efficiency (Timmons et al., 2019). Thus, the strategic use of computer among the nurses is to be promoted instead of avoiding its entire use by them. In this condition, the nurses are to be educated in which condition they are to use computer and how they can strategically avoid manipulation of using the computer during caring hours for their own personal need.

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