Critical Care Departments

In the Intelligent Hospital Pavilion ICU video, Dr. Neil A Halpern showed the latest technologies and how important advanced technology can have an effect on the patients. The advanced technology can contribute in improving patient care, reduce in costs, improve patient outcome, and the benefits it will have on the health care professionals. According to Dr. Neil A Halpern, he emphasized how patient safety is important in ICU. It is important as a nurse to avoid any unexpected and unattended harm for the patient. Providing patient safety is critical and providing a safe environment. It is important that all the machines work properly in order to prevent errors. Nurses spend the most time with the patient and Dr. Halpern mentions that advanced technology plays a role in delivering care in the ICU. It is critical as a nurse to be able to learn all the new advance technologies in order to reduced improve safety and reduce errors.

Nurses must be able to maintain patient’s privacy. Dr. Halpern explains different ways in which privacy can be achieved and manages. the video showed the use of the E-glass which is used in the hospital for the separation of one patient to the other. It enabled the health care staff to make sure patients’ privacy and information was kept confidential. The E-class is a great tool that should be at every hospital because it changes color, and no one can see through it. When patient has procedures or are taking a shower or using the restroom, this provides privacy and respect for the patients. Dr. Halpern mentions that the E-glass promotes better cleanliness because a curtain can harbor bacteria and needs to be switched with every patient that comes in. ensuring privacy is beneficial to nurses and to the patients, it provides respect for inherent human dignity (American Nurses’ Association)

Another beneficial technology that is being used in the ICU is the lung sonography which has replaced the stethoscope. This machine is used in the ICU and collects data in real time and is a component of the physical exam. The machine provides accurate information and in helps the physicians and nurses to make a judgment on the patient’s condition. It has reduced and improved the quality of treatment and even reducing mortality and morbidity. Another great technology that is used is an infusion pump that is used to deliver medication in a controlled amount. This is critical device that can reduce medication errors in hospitals.

Critical care is starting to develop advance technologies that will benefits the healthcare professionals as well as improving patient care. Advance technology can be live-saving but can also put some patients at risk. Nurses are relying and spending more time on the machines and less time with the patient, which can lead to missing a change of symptom for the patients. Another negative aspect of technology is that nurses can become “alarm fatigue” and become desensitized due to the frequent ringing of the alarms. The nurses start to ignore them and not respond to them promptly. Another errors that can happen is medication administration errors when using an infusion pump. Nurses can often mistype and enter the wrong medication and can lead to a fatal mistake.

In today’s world of advance technology, it is important to ensure the best possible patient safety. In years to come, hospitals especially in the critical care departments will follow in ensuring highly advance technologies in order to improve patient outcome. It is critical that the nurses do not rely on the machines to do all the work and make sure they are assessing the patents in order to be involved in the patient care. Nurses need to be getting trained and educated every time they are a new device in order to keep up with the new technology devices.

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