Technology assessment in critical care

Article Abstract:

Critical care nurses have become familiar with a great deal of advanced technology, which has increased the respect for the nursing profession as a whole. Although biomedical technology has provided many benefits to patients, it also harbors the potential to cause more harm than good in some situations, posing difficult ethical issues. Technology assessment evaluates the effects of a technology on society, but many new technologies arrive in the critical care unit before their efficacy and impact have been established, placing the responsibility for assessment on the caregivers. Not only the efficacy of these new machines and therapies needs to be studied, but the ethical issues as well. There are three potential ethical concerns that must be addressed. First, at what point does technology cease to prolong life and simply prolong dying? What is best for the patient has too often been replaced by the imperative to do all that is technically possible, regardless of the patient's welfare or wishes. Or the technologic imperative may influence patients and those around them to feel that advanced technology is necessary for good treatment, with unrealistic expectations. Second, technology has dehumanized the patient so that they are often viewed as objects to be experimented on. They may be left isolated and stripped of dignity. This is turn dehumanizes the caregivers. Third, how are resources to be allocated? High technology is labor intensive, which may drain nursing care from less critically ill patients. Essential care is provided, but supportive contact between the nurse and the patient and the patient's family will suffer. Technology can work wonders, but nurses must always question its safety, efficacy, and benefit to the patient. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Social aspects, Ethical aspects, Technology assessment, Medical innovations, Medical technology, Intensive care nursing

---

Factors affecting decisions made by family members of patients with severe head injury

Article Abstract:

When a family member is injured and requires hospitalization in an intensive care unit, it can become a very stressful time for the family. Important decisions need to be made and many external factors can influence these decisions. The situation becomes even more complicated in the case of severe head injury where the patient is unconscious and cannot make any of the decisions. A few studies have been performed to determine what types of decisions have to be made in these situations and the types of external factors that can influence these decisions. However, most of these studies used information that was provided by family members several months or years after the incident. To gain a better understanding of the factors that influence these types of decisions, 19 family members of 11 patients with severe head injuries were interviewed on five separate occasions over a one-month period following the incident. During the period of the interviews a total 60 relevant decisions needed to be made. The decisions were related to medical, financial, personal, ethical and legal issues. Factors that influenced these decisions included personal functioning (life style and need to be near the patient), family-physician and family-patient relationships, ability to understand medical information regarding the patient's condition, uncertainty about the patient's ability to recover, the critical care unit environment, and emotions. The family members agreed that uncertainty about recovery and ability to understand medical information were the most important factors that influenced their decisions. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Management, Planning, Surveys, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Hospital patients, Family, Intensive care units, Critical care medicine

---

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Right ventricular infarction: a clinical case study. Effects of support groups on anxiety of family members during critical illness
• Abstracts: The new academic medical center. Crisis in Niger - Outpatient care for severe acute malnutrition
• Abstracts: Antibody coated bacteria in urine of patients with recent spinal injury. Severe granulomatous arthritis due to spinous injury by a ''sea mouse'' annelid worm
• Abstracts: Cortical resection for children with epilepsy: perspectives in pediatrics. Esophageal motility in children with Hirschsprung's disease
• Abstracts: Prevention and treatment of nerve gas poisoning. Treatment of nerve gas poisoning. Gamma hydroxy butyrate poisoning

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.