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The recent advancement in medical technology is astounding, if you think about it.

We can view the inside of the human body to such a fine detail that the human eye has a difficult time deciphering the pieces. We can monitor physiological processes remotely. We can view and document just about anything related to patient care remotely.

I think every piece of new technology that’s come across the healthcare spectrum in the past two decades is one of those inventions you hate when it’s first introduced. In fact, you hate it so much you might be offended by the audacity that someone thought this invention would even work, let alone benefit healthcare.

The invention picks up steam and eventually is adopted as the “standard.” You go from hating it and refusing to use it to sluggishly accepting it. We all become Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh: “Hooo-hummm. I guess I’ll go ahead and use this.”

Eventually, life seems to improve due to the use of said invention, and you bashfully admit it’s worthwhile. But then something crazy happens: You actually start to like the invention.

You like it so much you become proficient at using it. Your job gets–dare I say–easier because of this technology.

The switch has been flipped. You love it.

Then something happens. The new technology–you know, the one you thought was the best thing since sliced bread–turns out to be fallible.

Not only is it fallible, it’s downright breakable. Breakable and useless, I tell ya!

Now that it’s out of order, you have no idea what to do. You have to pull from the depths of your memory what the heck you did before your new toy, err, technology.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? A few weeks ago, our electronic health record system went down. I can’t even begin to tell you how crazy it was trying to function without that “crutch.” We were writing physicians’ orders on real paper! We were faxing orders to pharmacies with a real fax machine! And we were charting on real paper! (Madness, I tell ya!)

It was as if the sky was falling and I was Chicken Little.

Thankfully, the sky only fell on us that morning, and by the afternoon we had our crutch back.

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We’ve talked about social media at length here at Scrubs.

With so many gray areas that accompany the proliferation of social media for nurses, there’s great potential to connect with fellow nurses and patients like never before .

There are also great risks of instantaneously committing the biggest professional blunder of your life.

Did you know:

• Nursing schools can view your Facebook profile without your permission
• Yes, nurses have been fired for Facebooking inappropriately
• The ANA has published a set of social media principles

Recently, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) has released a Nurse’se Guide to Use Social Media  – available here.

You can download this PDF and get the lowdown on the appropriate uses of social media, the pitfalls and risks as well as debunked myths and misconceptions.

According to Market Watch, NCSBN is:

…a not-for-profit organization whose members include the boards of nursing in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and four U.S. territories — American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands. There are also nine associate members. Mission: NCSBN provides education, service and research through collaborative leadership to promote evidence-based regulatory excellence for patient safety and public protection.

The NCSBN has also released a video to dramatize the potential pitfalls of social media for nurses:

Have you seen a fellow nurse violate a patient’s trust and privacy by using social media? How big is this issue?

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by Tania Khadder

Technology is a beautiful thing. Most of us can’t imagine doing our jobs without it.

But sometimes, overindulging in email, texts, and social networking might actually hinder your performance as a nurse.

We’ve identified five ways your iPhone, BlackBerry, Facebook and that endless information superhighway are actually making you worse at your job.

1. Instant messaging is twisting your words

2. You’re afraid of the phone

3. You never unplug

4. You’ve forgotten how to fax

5. Social media is distracting you

IM is making you lazy –>

Hemera | Thinkstock + Scrubs

That’s the newest concept in the world of health care these days. Telemedicine, telehealth and of course telenursing. They all seem to fall under the same umbrella definition of delivering care from a remote distance.

We nurses are no strangers to this type of care. There are nurses out there who used to deliver their care to their patients over the phone (and some still do). What has changed over the years is the avenue by which this care is delivered…for example, via this lil invention called the internet (have you heard of it?). The ‘net brought enormous technological advancements in health care delivery and health care monitoring.

Everything from Holter monitors to 24-hour pharmacies to the Electronic Medical Health Record has catapulted the way in which we provide care to patients.

We’ve leapfrogged from downloading patient data ‘after-the-fact, to real-time monitoring of an event as it happens. This real-time monitoring has now been taken to the ‘next level’.

Traditionally, patients who are being monitored by ‘telemetry’ (bare-minimum continuous ECG ) are monitored by nursing staff (as well as physicians) who are with the patient on the same unit, the same floor, heck – the same building!

Well, not anymore.

The amazing advancements in our technology have opened new doors (literally). Patients are being ‘monitored’ remotely. The nurse (or physician) is now monitoring patients and their dynamic vital signs from a distance. That distance can be as close as the next floor or as far as the next building. I read somewhere that monitoring was performed across state lines and even across coast lines! The distance threshold seems to hold no boundaries lately.

As a critical care nurse this equally excites and scares the bejeezus outta me. How awesome that would be to have the ability to possibly stop an emergent event from happening from a distance?! But, on the other hand, how horrifically scary would it be to make an error in judgment!

The possibilities are endless if you think about it. There are of course numerous adjustments and accommodations that would have to be made for every instance. Patient safety would be the priority.

I’m not sure how comfortable I would be performing those duties? As a critical care nurse we are always, always, always taught to never trust a monitor and to always, always, always (did I emphasize always enough?) check the patient first. No matter how great the technology may be, I just don’t think anything can replace your 5 senses.

This got me thinking about what would be appropriate for a person to post about their work.

Obviously, never, EVER post any patient information.  This could get you in tons of trouble and possibly cause you to lose your job, and even legal issues.  I know we want to post funny things that happen at work, but do not use patient names, describe them or give any information that could identify them to others.  If for some reason I post something like that, I even try to change the sex of the patient.

When it comes to your boss or job, you may want to get online and complain when you think your boss did something unfair, or when you have a bad day at work.  But try not using their name, your hospital and/or unit name.  This will make your boss, unit and organization look bad to others.  Maybe it is just a personal thing between the two of you and your boss will get along great with somebody else.  It can also give patients an inappropriate view of the type of care they will receive or had received there at one time.

What I would suggest…..keep work at work.  The best way to keep yourself from possibly getting in trouble is to just not talk about it in a public forum.

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Nurses are busy enough taking care of patients, calming families, and keeping doctors updated on cases. Don’t let a silly email mistake ruin your shift! In this age of BlackBerry-toting professionals connected by email around globe, it’s crucial to abide by the written (and unwritten) rules of email communication. You don’t want to embarrass yourself, do you?

Don’t send another message without this checklist in mind:

Fit for Email or Text?

Email’s speed and effectiveness is perfect for sending important message about a new swine flu outbreak or some other hospital emergency. But is it the best way to deliver every message? Are you sending an email about your vacation plans? Or are you responding to a message riddled with patient questions and clarification requests? Picking up the phone or chatting face-to-face with fellow nurses could cut down on time-wasting (and highly unproductive) back-and-forth prattle, which saves everyone time and energy. Remember, one size doesn’t fit all, so make sure an email is the correct mode of communication.

Who’s your target audience? –>

These words, published in a 2010 study by the online research journal Perspectives in Health Information Management, depict a hard-to-miss reality of how smartphones are becoming an integral element in today’s ever-evolving healthcare industry. The study went on to state the reasoning behind the power that smartphones hold over our industry: “They merge and integrate multiple and varied technological functions into a single device that is both versatile and portable.”

For many nurses, the findings of this study are nothing new. Introduced in 2000, smartphones are increasing in popularity every year and nurses are finding new ways to put them to use—for work and for play.

We’ve profiled our favorite mobile apps and smartphones in the past couple years, but new apps emerge all the time. Here’s a look at some of the apps that nurses are loving right now.

1. Johns Hopkins Guides

ABX Guide
Diabetes Guide
HIV Guide

Johns Hopkins Medicine publishes three mobile apps that are the authoritative guides on antibiotics, diabetes and HIV. Each guide includes up-to-date, comprehensive information about its subject, as well as links to further reference sources. Additionally, the guides include detailed drug and treatment information. Though the three guides can be purchased separately, you can save by purchasing all three at the bundled rate.

Price: $24.95 each; $49.95 bundled

NEXT: Kaplan Math for Nurses

We polled thousands of nurses and came up with the 50 apps that nurses are obsessed with right now for music, humor, work solutions, weight loss and even tuning a violin!

Yup. There’s an app for everything. Did we miss your favorite? Add it to our comments!

Fun and Games

1. Top App: Pandora – Create a station based on a favorite song or artist and discover new tunes!
Why nurses love it: “Love the ambient station.” —Nurse Michaela

More games and entertainment apps that nurses are loving right now:

2. Jewels – A simple yet polished match-3 puzzle game. Just the right ingredients for an addictive game.
3. Ghost Radar – Got a dark supply room you need to go into? Download this paranormal activity detector first. Or get slimed. Up to you.
4. MP3 Music Downloader – Shop 16 million songs and play music on your mobile device.
5. Facebook – If you haven’t abandoned ship for Google+, you probably have this app on your phone already.
6. Plants vs. Zombies – “Use your arsenal of 49 zombie-zapping plants—peashooters, wall-nuts, cherry bombs and more—to mulchify 26 types of zombies before they break down your door.” Sounds like fun, right?!
7. Sudoku – It’s been a top 100 app in iTunes for over a year. And it’s free. So…what are you waiting for?
8. iHeartRadio – Listen to America’s best music and talk stations.
9. Words with Friends – A great version of Scrabble that you can play with multiple friends. There’s a free version, too!
10. Shazam – Discover, buy and share the song that’s playing.
11. Solitaire – Have a couple minutes to kill? Choose from a variety of pretty backgrounds for this go-to card game.
12. Angry Birds – Download the nation’s favorite obsession!
13. iBooks – Download books to your beautiful mobile bookshelf. Help your children to read with the “read aloud” feature.
14. YouTube – This is a total must-have!
15. SquirrelCam – Watch wildlife live on your phone!
16. TV listings – The official TV Guide app lets you check listings and get all of the latest entertainment news.
17. iRecord – Record videos, movies and music.
18. Nook – Read your favorite books, newspapers and magazines and sample titles for free.
19. Bejeweled Blitz – Do we really need to explain this one?
20. Mahjong – The classic game now on your mobile phone.
21. Wordament – Real-time multiplayer word game!
22. Zentimino – This low-pressure puzzle game is meant to be challenging but relaxing!

NEXT: APPS FOR YOUR WORK DAY

I heard rumors going around the hospital about a charge nurse on another unit that was posting negative remarks about his manager and unit on Facebook.  Another nurse came to me to talk about it because she knew that I was friends with this manager.  She even showed me what was posted.

Not only did this charge nurse post these remarks about his boss, but even stated these remarks using her name and the unit name.  Unbelievable!  I can’t believe that a nurse, especially a charge nurse who is in a leadership position, would stoop to that.  He was even having dialogs with other nurses form that unit talking trash about the unit and manager.

I requested to be his friend to make a comment about how inappropriate what he is doing is, but I decided the best way to handle this was to present this information to the manager of the unit.  I felt it was her problem to deal with, and I was not going to sink to his cowardly way of dealing with problems.

Not only did this make him look bad as an employee, but also weak as a leader on the unit.  It is one thing for nurse to complain about their boss in private or in the breakroom, but it is another for one of the members of the leadership team to lead the complaining session.

Also, just an FYI to all you out there that think what you post on Facebook or any other social networking site is private……it is not.  It is out there for the entire world to see.  Just because you think only your friends can see what you post, you will have friends that will show what you posted to others, and eventually that can get back to your employer that can put you in position that may jeopardize your job or at the very least the trust your boss has in you.

Remember, it is normal to complain about your boss, just be careful you who do the complaining to, and how you do it.

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I don’t consider myself to be the most tech-savvy person out there. But I know my basics. I know that when my computer is making noise louder than a blow dryer, it’s time to send it in to get it looked at. I also know that when the company who looks at it tells me “nothing’s wrong” and send it back, that they are the crazy ones, and so I send it back. Again and again. They aren’t happy with me, but I’m not too happy with them either, so that’s OK, we’re even.