WEEK 7 DQ – MIDDLE RANGE THEORIES WEEK SEVEN Topic: Middle Range Theories Reading Smith & Parker textbook – 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 • Choose one of the following questions for this week's discussion. Suggestion: Respond to at least one question that is the opposite of the one you chose. • Select # 1 or # 2 1. Describe a nursing situation you recently experienced in which your patient felt "cared for." Identify caring-based nursing interventions you used to influence the patient's perception of feeling cared for. Based on your understanding of Duffy's Quality-Caring Model, identify additional caring-based nursing interventions. Post your examples to share with your classmates. -Or2. Describe a nursing situation in which technology played an important role. Identify calls for nursing in this selected nursing situation. Based on your understanding of the Theory of Technological Competency as Caring, describe nursing behaviors that promote best practice. • APA style 750 words / use at least 3 references WEEK 7 – MIDDLE RANGE THEORIES WEEK SEVEN Topic: Middle Range Theories Reading Smith & Parker textbook – 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 • Choose one of the following questions for this week's discussion. Suggestion: Respond to at least one question that is the opposite of the one you chose. • Select # 1 or # 2 1. Describe a nursing situation you recently experienced in which your patient felt "cared for." Identify caring-based nursing interventions you used to influence the patient's perception of feeling cared for. Based on your understanding of Duffy's Quality-Caring Model, identify additional caring-based nursing interventions. Post your examples to share with your classmates. -Or2. Describe a nursing situation in which technology played an important role. Identify calls for nursing in this selected nursing situation. Based on your understanding of the Theory of Technological Competency as Caring, describe nursing behaviors that promote best practice. • APA style 750 words / use at least 3 references
 

Nursing Situation that Involved the Use of Technology

            There is no doubt that technology has transformed patient care. Technology has reduced costs and improved quality and efficiency in nursing care. Some of the benefits of using technology in nursing care include encouraging patient-centered care, facilitating communication between nursing teams and other healthcare providers, reducing medical errors, improving medication safety, and increasing access to information (Foisey, 2017). Before technology was embraced in healthcare, nurses and other healthcare professionals had to do everything manually. The only way errors could be prevented was for nurses or other providers to be present during the entire process. However, all that has changed.

            Just recently, a critical patient was brought to the hospital where I work. The patient had been involved in an accident, hence he could eat on his own or take medications. As such, we had to rely on medical technologies to care for the patients. We used an automated IV pump to control drips and dosages given to the patient. Using the pump, we could change medication doses and drip amounts. Because the patient could not eat on his own, we also used IV pumps for the patient's nutrition. The pump allowed us to give the patients meals at the correct times.

            Generally, IV pumps improved our efficiency. Many errors can occur during patient care, especially when dealing with delicate patients, such as the one we were caring for. However, the use of technology helped us reduce the chances of making errors. Besides automated IV pumps, we also used wearable technology on the patient, which allowed us to monitor the patient's respiration, sleeping patterns, and heart rates. These are factors that should be watched keenly when dealing with critical patients.

Nursing Calls in the Situation

            Nursing calls illuminate a person's aspirations, dreams, and hopes. One of the nursing calls in the care situation described above was to appreciate the patient's uniqueness (Smith & Parker, 2015). Appreciating the patient's uniqueness enabled us to enhance, celebrate, affirm, support, and sustain the completeness of the patient. As nurses, we relied on the patient for nursing calls. According to Smith & Parker (2015), nursing calls are unique to each person or patient. Understanding the patient's uniqueness above allowed us to respond to each of his needs authentically and fully.

            There are different ways nursing calls can be expressed. For example, they can be expressed as dreams and homes: the desire to die peacefully, the desire to go home, the desire to play the piano when one's fingers have healed, or the desire to be with family and friends while one is still recovering in the hospital (Smith & Parker, 2015). Our nursing call was to monitor information patterns, such as those from the electrocardiogram in the situation described above. Doing this enabled us to administer life-saving medications, know the patient's psychological status, and refer him to other professionals when necessary. The wholeness of nursing care is to sustain, direct, attain, focus, and maintain the patient. To achieve these goals, we had to hear the patient's nursing calls momentarily and continuously. Doing this allowed us to use nursing technologies to articulate nursing calls effectively (Smith & Parker, 2015).

Nursing Behaviors that Promote Best Practice

            One of the nursing behaviors that promote best practices when it comes to using technology in healthcare is to appreciate the role of technology in promoting nursing effectiveness (Smith & Parker, 2015). Additionally, nurses must be willing to acquire the competencies needed to use technology in patient care effectively. Besides appreciating the role of technology and acquiring technological skills, nurses must also know the risks associated with technology, such as data breaches, which can expose patient data. Smith and Parker (2015) state that technological know-how is needed for nurses to know the real person. In other words, technological knowing involves using technological tools to understand or know the person being nursed. Nurses should also use their technological competency to view patients not as objects but as people who should be involved in their care. Patient involvement requires nurses to use technology to enter patients' world to understand their situations (Smith & Parker, 2015). In essence, nurses should use technology to promote collaboration between themselves and those being nursed. Such partnerships will foster good relations.  

            Passing technological know-how to other practitioners is another important nursing behavior that can promote best practices. Nurses should, therefore, make it their goal to teach the next generation of nurses the computer and technological skills they will need to better care for their patients. This is also crucial in nursing education, especially for nursing professionals who start using technology late in life. Such professionals usually require extra effort and time to acquire the needed skills. Pursuing career paths or courses that lead to the acquisition of technological know-how is another behavior that nurses should adopt. Because technology is always evolving, new healthcare technologies continue to be developed. As such, nurses must also be willing to upgrade their skills through continuing education, professional upgrades, and other approved means. Commitment to continued education is, in fact, the best way for nursing professionals to maintain their competitiveness in the nursing profession.