As the title of this post may suggest I am having a love hate relationship with technology this week. However, I learned long ago I better get with the program or I would be left far far behind in every aspect of nursing. Technology is a fast growing, rapidly essential part of everyone's nursing practice. From learning to take a blood pressure with the touchscreen monitor at the bedside (first you have to set the right profile, know the right buttons to press, being able to trouble shoot - you get the idea!) to the ipad applications that are just there for those in the health care profession. Yes, yes I know these tools are there to make my job easier and promote high quality of nursing care, but instead of getting a BSN there are some days I wish I had a degree in computer science!
The online class I teach has just changed it learning environment from EPIC to Blackboard. Now I had just come to terms with EPIC, me and EPIC had recently become friends, I was able to join the discussion board, use the grade book, send and receive emails all without too much stress. Now my new love is Blackboard but we are like a dysfunctional couple from the "Bachelor", we desperately want to make it work but we do not really know each other yet, and we are in love with the thought of being together but the reality.....well it leaves me wanting. Learning a whole new system has seriously slowed down my productivity and increased my stress this week.
The University I am a clinical instructor for recently changed their email server from Outlook to Google.....What!!!! What was wrong with Outlook, it was an old friend, like sleeping in your favorite t-shirt. This Google thing is for the millennials, how do I populate my address book,why am I now getting emails from the whole university not just the nursing department. I am not really interested in who is running for freshman student government (although I am sure it is extremely valid), but now I am getting daily emails from Tiffany, Justin and Dave trying to persuade me why they need my vote!!!
Now don't get me wrong, I am a lover of technology. In our house we have more computers than TVs, sad fact is you will often find my husband and myself in the evening working on our laptops and ipads spontaneously. I pride myself on being a multi tasker, I can cook dinner and text my kids with one hand behind my back. But sometimes technology goes so fast I feel stressed, marooned with nowhere to go. Thank goodness I have very techy children who are also nocturnal so I can call them at anytime of the night. Goodness knows how I would have got through grad school without Elliot showing me how to use PowerPoint.
And it got me thinking, nursing is one of those multi generational professions. We have nurses in their 60's and their 20's who must both coexist with peace in the clinical environment. And technology can make it hard for those who have not been exposed to it all their lives and fear looking stupid if they ask for help too many times. In the converse, the older more mastered nurses often do not tolerate the millenials with the insane ability of opposable thumbs and the ability to listen to you while playing on their smart phone! There must be tolerance both ways because I am afraid my friends that accelerated technology is here to stay.
All I can say is HELP!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment