No workplace has escaped the touch of technology, including nursing. Nursing is still, and will always be, a field where technology has had a huge impact on the way that nurses do their job. While some of the technological advances have made the nurse’s job easier, others have been implemented as a price saving measure, and still others are used to improve patient safety.

Like those in other industries, nurses are often reluctant of using new technologies. With the desire to remain within the process they are familiar with, nurses are often unwillingly pulled into newer technologies. Like most others, once they become familiar with new technology, they grow to like it. One side effect of the new technological advancements in healthcare is the increase in jobs related to the field. Before ultrasounds, there was no need for someone trained to perform them. Respiratory therapy, nuclear medicine and many other branches of healthcare have created new jobs by the advancement of technology.

Improvements in medical care

Advancements in technology have lead to improved healthcare and patient care. Before the development of electronic IV monitors and IV pump infusions, anyone who received an IV had it administered under the watchful eye of a nurse. Because manual IVs were susceptible to stopping or flowing too rapidly, a nurse remained by the patient’s side every time they received an IV. When you consider how common IVs are, it is easy to see how much time is saved with the electronic IV monitor.

All nurses are familiar with the sphygmomanometer. This is the technical name for a blood pressure cuff. Having an electronic blood pressure cuff that also records the patient’s heart beat is probably one of the greatest time saving tools that technology has brought to nursing.

Technologies such as ultrasound and sonograms have given the medical community the ability to look inside of the human body and see unborn babies and cancerous tumors. While a nurse does not perform or read the ultrasounds and sonograms, their effect has touched the nursing community by allowing more invasive diagnostic procedures to fall by the wayside.

Improvements in information management

As important as nursing care is for the patient, it is only one part of the nurse’s job. The nurse is responsible for maintaining an accurate record on each patient under her care. While many hospitals continue to use pen and paper charting, technology can make the record keeping process less cumbersome. There are computerized programs available for medication dispensing, hospital occupancy and insurance and payment programs. Patient records can be maintained in a computerized database which allows the physician, nurse or other medical professional to pull up the patient’s medical history in seconds. Portable computing equipment allows the nurse to update the information on the fly, rather than at the end of each shift. Internet access allows medical personnel to have instant access to databases to search for symptoms and drug interactions.

Reducing the risk of mistakes

Computerized drug management software reduces the chances of a patient receiving the wrong drug, or being given two drugs that should not be given together. Portable defibrillators only work when they are needed and properly applied. Many of the improvements in technology are aimed at reducing the risk of errors and mistakes that can lead to injury or death. This not only makes the hospital a safer place for patients, but helps ease the stress nurses and other medical professionals are under.

Technology and the nurse

As the nursing field becomes more specialized, the need for nurses that are comfortable with new technology will only increase. While many of the therapies for disease involve drugs, a growing number include medical devices. Technology is focused on the healthcare industry right now for a variety of reasons. Recent drug interactions of approved drugs have made more healthcare development firms look at device development as a safer and less litigious area of development.

The growing needs for medical care and the shortage of healthcare workers also drive the development of new technology. Innovations that make it possible for a nurse to perform duties more efficiently, or allow them to hand over duties to an aide or administrative personnel increases efficiency and increase the number of patients that can be cared for with the same number of nurses.

The desire to reduce mistakes that can cause harm to the patient also drive the development of technology. Devices that have built in safeguards that prevent misuse are one example of this technology. In many highly computerized hospitals, a patient cannot be dispensed the improper medicine, because the computer checks current medications the patient is currently taking, and the patient’s diagnosis, before allowing the medication to be removed from the pharmacy. If the doctor wants the medicine, he must manually override the system.

While nothing can totally remove the pressure of working as a nurse, many innovative solutions have made the job much more manageable. While the learning curve is often steep, the savings in time and worry are your compensation.

Can you see bed bugs?

Awakening with itchy, red bites on areas of your skin is not a nice experience. You then begin questioning just what led to the problem? A skin condition, fleas, mosquitoes, BED BUGS?

These types of symptoms will most likely have many causes and it can be very hard for a doctor to pin down the exact cause so if you suspect bed bugs it makes diagnosis a great deal faster if you can actually find the culprits!

Ok so, the major question is can you see bed bugs? The answer is yes!
An adult bed bug is reddish brown in color and has a flat, oval shaped body and six legs – great for fitting into the smallest of hiding places! In terms of size an adult is going to measure around 4 to 5 mm in length and 1.5 to 3 mm in width. Quite often the adult bug is compared in appearance and size to an apple seed.

A newly hatched nymph or “baby bed bug” looks exactly like a tinier version of its parents. You can see juvenile bed bugs with the naked eye. They only measure about 1 mm and are translucent. I have heard nymphs likened to poppy seeds in size!

Both the adult and bed bug nymphs “grow” in girth after a nice blood meal. When engorged their normally flat bodies will become more “puffed up” and their color changes to red because the blood within them is visible. The color only changes to the more usual tan or reddish brown as the meal is digested. Therefore if you see what resembles a moving blood spot on your bed sheets it is most likely a bed bug!

Finding and eliminating bed bug eggs is a vital element of any bed bug treatment because an adult female is going to lay eggs at a rate of around 1 to 5 each day that’s up to 500 in her life time. Can you see bed bug eggs? These are frequently described as looking like grains of rice in shape and color It is possible to see them with no magnification due to the fact they measure roughly 1 mm. You will most likely discover them “stuck” to the surface of a mattress or a headboard.

As they developed bed bugs cast their skins a total of 6 times before they develop into sexually mature adults. This process normally takes in the region of 5 weeks. It is quite possible to see bed bugs skins that have been cast during this process. Basically they look exactly like a bed bug but are in fact transparent, empty skins. If you do find these when hunting down bed bugs in your home they are a sure sign of an active infestation.