Section One: Resistance to New Technologies in Health Care
Resistance to new technologies among patients, caregivers, and nurses is a burning topic in health care. During the last several decades, in the United States, many healthcare facilities succeed in transitioning from a paper record system to an electronic one. It is believed that such a step can improve legibility and the quality of services, reduce medical errors, and decrease costs (Nilsen, Dugstad, Eide, Gullslett, & Eide, 2016). Resistance to technologies is explained in a variety of ways, from perceiving it as a threat to personal information to the lack of understanding of its true effects.
Many patients, nurses, and other medical workers are not confident if new technologies can address a real problem. It is hard to clarify if all that data about patients, including their history details, all vital signs, and abnormalities, is necessary for a particular case. As a result, this system contains overwhelming and redundant information. Another type of resistance is based on costs associated with new technologies. Not all hospitals and medical workers are ready to spend a lot and expect other stakeholders to pay for a new system. Finally, not all experienced physicians and nurses are aware of the peculiarities of the electronic system.
They are not able to share all the information with their patients and have to slow down their work to meet new requirements. In general, there are four types of resistances: organizational (new rules and standards), cultural (new cooperation), technological (new knowledge), and ethical (privacy) (Nilsen et al., 2016). Each of them has an impact on understanding the quality of health care.
To diminish these resistances, it is expected to take several steps and give clear explanations. The improvement of the quality of education and training for healthcare workers is an essential strategy (Nilsen et al., 2016). The exchange of experiences, cooperation, and open discussions help participants accept changes, get used to new technologies, and understand what the representatives of different cultures want to observe in technology-based hospitals and similar facilities.
Information Literacy and Nursing Informatics
Information literacy plays an important role in nursing as it contributes to the establishment of a framework for individuals’ abilities, skills, and opportunities. Regarding the existing technology progress, health care standards, and people’s expectations, the way of how nurses and other healthcare workers should search and use information undergoes considerable changes. First, the possibility to surf the web decreases time and opens a variety of options. Second, a new searching system has to be applied not to miss any detail and meet the goals set. Finally, knowledge about information technology, computer skills, and informatics must be properly developed in nurses (Darvish, Bahramnezhad, Keyhanian, & Navidhamidi, 2014).
The Foundation of Knowledge model is a perfect contribution to understanding the needs of the healthcare delivery system, including all its stakeholders, patients, and nurses. In the case under analysis, a nurse faces certain challenges in searching for the best options, the most accurate information, and the most trusted resources to improve his knowledge about the patient’s condition, proving that information literacy has positive as well as negative impact on nursing information in the 21st century.
According to the Foundation of Knowledge model, people gather information in the form of bits and pieces and use their skills to transform it into knowledge and experience. Acquisition and generation promote processing that further provokes dissemination supported and approved using feedback. The steps taken by Charles in the case study correspond with the elements of the model as this person decided to acquire new knowledge based on the need to improve the quality of care.
Then, the generation of information occurs to initiate the processing and dissemination (exchange) of knowledge in a particular situation. These elements of nursing research cannot be ignored because it is the only chance for medical workers to make the right choice and follow the chosen direction in nursing work.
References
Darvish, A., Bahramnezhad, F., Keyhanian, S., & Navidhamidi, M. (2014). The role of nursing informatics on promoting quality of health care and the need for appropriate education. Global Journal of Health Science, 6(6), 11-18. Web.
Nilsen, E. R., Dugstad, J., Eide, H., Gullslett, M. K., & Eide, T. (2016). Exploring resistance to implementation of welfare technology in municipal healthcare services – A longitudinal case study. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1), 657. Web.