The current technological advancements have simplified the way most things are done. Work that was previously bulky and demanding has now been made relatively easy and manageable through the helping hand of technology. These benefits have also been witnessed in hospitals and health facilities. Through cutting edge technological innovations and inventions, the way that patients are handled and served has taken a drastic change. However, despite the massive benefits that technology has brought in the health sector, it has not been all rosy and merry. There have been risks both to patients and nurses. Thus, it is essential to give a reflective analysis of the benefits and risks associated with the adaptation and implementation of technology in the ICU at Intelligent Hospital Pavilion.
From the pavilion videos, it is imperatively clear that the health sector is consistently relying on the use of technology to improve the service offering made to patients. The first key point I picked from watching the pavilion video is that technology plays a crucial part in maintaining the privacy in the ICU. This is particularly achieved via the use of some sort of an e-glass, which provides instant privacy to the patient at the touch of a button (Halpern, 2014). By pressing a button, the patient is shielded from prying eyes that might cause discomfort to the them while they are still receiving treatment in the ICU.
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In as much as technology is vital in the maintenance of privacy, it also poses a major risk to secrecy. Through the storage of information on technological platforms, information is horded on drives that can be accessed remotely with any person who has access to the internet and is in possession of brilliant hacking skills. This therefore puts nurses and patients at a significant risk of having their vital information falling into the wrong hands ( Kaur & Rawat, 2015) . As noted in the video, there are significant efforts to maintain the security of the information stored technologically. These efforts don’t always guarantee impenetrability of the data storage sources and there are occasions where these sources can be susceptible to malicious manipulation from unscrupulous individuals.
I have also understood from watching the Intelligent Hospital Pavilion video that another technological advancement that is now available to nursing professionals is the use of informatics. According to Kaur and Rawat (2015) , informatics is the use of technology to handle the vital areas of recording, storage and sharing of information. Through the use of informatics, both patients and nurses benefit greatly. For patients, it is much easier to access historical data concerning them when they are brought to the ICU for conditions that are similar to or different from conditions they had in the past. Technology is able to store large volumes of information that can be found easily and therefore for nurses the benefit of faster access beats the need to access physical files in a warehouse.
Through the tracking of specimen and blood in and out of the ICU via the use of technology, there is a great benefit enjoyed by nurses. As noted by Halpern (2014), tracking the inward and outward flow of specimen in the lab was always an issue of serious concern prior to the implementation of technology in the hospital. Nurses have been greatly helped by this technological aid since it is easy to get real time information concerning a patient during changeover of shifts. As opposed to having to go through long reports that might even miss out on some information concerning what has gone out and what has come in, nurses only have to click a button. This is also of benefit to patients since they are able to enjoy better service from the nurses when they have a clear and current picture of whatever specimens or blood that have gone out or come in.
The ICU has a lot of devices with each playing a critical role in ensuring that the patient is well cared for. These devices in themselves are of great benefit to both the patient and nurses. The first benefit offered by medical devices and equipment is that they monitor the vitals of patients and report on the condition of the patient ( Sapci & Sapci, 2019) . Each device has an area of concentration and a role that it individually plays towards helping the nurses and doctors to gauge and understand the existing condition of the patient ( Sapci & Sapci, 2019) . At Intelligent Hospital Pavilion, they have managed to interlink all the devices which have culminated into a system where all the devices relay information to one another and eventually to a final point of display (Halpern, 2014). The achievement of a central display of all that is going on inside the body of the patient is beneficial to the patient since inconsistencies during treatment can easily be spotted and dealt with. For nurses, the central display point helps them to spot and snuff out inconsistencies.
In conclusion, from my watching of the Intelligent Hospital Pavilion videos, I have learnt that technology is now playing a vital role in the ICU. The e-glass implemented at Intelligent Hospital has enabled the easy provision of privacy to both the patient and nurses during critical ICU operations. Through the use of informatics, recording, storage and sharing of information has become simpler. This has created a lot of benefit to both patients and nurses since information can be easily accessed. The downside of informatics is that patient data is stored technologically in drives that are susceptible to malicious access via hacking. Tracking of specimens and blood has helped to prepare nurses for shift changeovers and also through interlinking of devices; patients have the advantage of their vitals being constantly monitored by the ICU staff.
References
Halpern, N. (2014). The ICU at the 2014 Intelligent Hospital™ Pavilion. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V42yuH4xmyQ [11 December 2019]
Kaur, S., & Rawat, H. C. L. (2015). Importance of Nursing Informatics in Nursing Curriculum for Utilization of Information Technology in Nursing Profession. Baba Farid University Nursing Journal , 9 (2), 1–5.
Sapci, A. H., & Sapci, H. A. (2019). Digital continuous healthcare and disruptive medical technologies: m-Health and telemedicine skills training for data-driven healthcare. Journal of Telemedicine & Telecare , 25 (10), 623–635.
