F R Vlasses | PubMed Health

PubMed1997

Too familiar for words: considering unaccounted-for aspects of nurse's work.

When things are too close to us, we have trouble seeing them clearly. Such may be the case with aspects of nursing work that are too familiar for words. The article reports a small case study from a qualitative study asking nurses to discuss work that no one else sees. Nurses use words such as facilitating, making it happen, filling in gaps, and putting the self in the situation to describe this work. With further study, these descriptions may offer insight into how nurses intervene to personalize the patient's experience with the health care system.

Adult↗

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Computerized documentation systems: blessings or curse?

This article considers the possibility that computerized documentation systems will negatively impact knowledge development in nursing. Ideas from three vantage points is presented. First, systems are being developed from theoretical frameworks that are not necessarily grounded in nursing, and these systems, in turn, influence the nurses's ability to process and conceptualize information. Second, computer systems may support the retrieval of empirical data to the elimination of other types of data necessary to the development of nursing knowledge. Third, computers may decrease opportunities for collegial dialogue. These factors together create an atmosphere of "technologic determinism" (Robinson & Robinson, 1990), which can inhibit the development of new ideas in nursing.

Decision Support Techniques↗