Conferences Nursing Congress 2019
The Revolutions and Nursing
Revolutions usually occur as a result of innovations and technological advancements. There have been two major revolutions brought about by technology; the Industrial Revolution and the Information Revolution. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the late 18th century and continued into the 19th century (History.com staff), then spread to other parts of the world. For the first time, machines were used in the manufacturing sector to increase productivity, the steam engine and automobile were developed to improve transportation and the telegraph was used to quicken communication.
By the mid-19th century, a rudimentary computer developed by Charles Babbage appeared (Thede, 2003). From here, further advancements in information, technology and communication led us to the Information Revolution, which began in the 1950’s. Computer systems such as Hospital Information Systems (HIS) were developed and used in healthcare for administrative and accounting purposes (Saba, 2015). During the 1960’s, studies were conducted analyzing the applicability of computers in nursing practice. Nurses began using electronic tools as monitoring devices to assess patient status (Saba, 2015). By the 1970’s, HIS were being used for processing physician order entries as well as for results reporting. In addition, computer applications in nursing were beginning to appear in the literature (Ozbolt & Saba, 2008). In the 1980’s, the first cellular phones and personal computers were introduced. The mid-1990’s saw the development of the Internet which in turn made communication and information available to anyone at any time. Computers are now an essential part of healthcare, as they streamline nurses’ work, improve efficiencies, and enhance the delivery and safety of the care delivered.
In the 2000’s, information was digitalized into music, books, and video. Personal computers and mobile communications have become standard tools. Nurses are expected to use electronic medication records (EMR) to assist in administering medications, electronic health records (EHR) to document, implement and evaluate care, and use mobile devices and the Internet to access point-of-care data and relevant information. Some nurses are also using telehealth to provide nursing care to patients in rural and remote areas (McIntyre & McDonald, 2014). This is in stark contrast to 1874, when the first Canadian hospital-based nursing school, the St. Catherine General and Marine Hospital in Ontario (Kirkwood, 2005), was established. Here, nursing education was based on an apprenticeship model where nursing students learned to nurse by providing care to the patients on the unit in exchange for room and board, thus providing cheap labour to staff hospitals (Kirkwood, 2005). Information was not readily available then, and the training a nurse received was dependent on the knowledge of a few supervisors.
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