High Tech Tools Don’t Replace Eyes, Ears, Common Sense

At the rapid rate that diagnostic testing technology is evolving, future generation of nursing students may be learning about a magic wand that reveals patient conditions before they even develop. Diagnostic tools that nurses and other practitioners use are concurrent with emerging needs of various patient populations.

For instance, there has been a cumulative rise in the number of severe traumatic head injuries such as the subdural hematoma that took the life of actress Natasha Richardson earlier this year. This type of data has led to the discovery of a certain serum protein biomarker that can detect serious brain injuries early.

Heart disease and the entire family of cardiac related disorders has always been a magnet for some of the most exciting advances medicine has to offer. This is a blessing indeed for the tens of millions of baby boomers who are entering old age with clogged arteries and ailing tickers from decades of fatty food abundance. Between learning how to interpret brain injury blood tests and staying current with patient teaching for the newest cardiac tests, nursing students almost have to become techno-geeks to keep up.

Stop. Before you go and immerse yourself in the technological side of patient care, make sure you don’t forget the human side. As a nursing student and later as a nurse, your most important diagnostic tools don’t require a battery, outlet or user’s manual. A nurse’s critically thinking mind, perceptive touch, alert eyes, and finely tuned ears are his or her most valuable diagnostic tools.

One of the dangers of the nursing shortage and replacing RNs with lesser trained health care providers is that RNs are trained to walk in a patient’s room, observe and detect the subtlest changes in a patient’s condition. Even after being trained to do this and then doing it several times, I find it difficult to explain how nurses are the best human diagnostic tools I’ve ever seen. As nursing students, it’s very important to be aware of these skills, nurture your natural assessment instincts and above all, learn to ask questions when you need to and trust your gut.

There was a great scene on the popular television show ER where the nurse turned medical student told her supervisor, when asked how she knew there was something more serious going on with her patient than what tests revealed: “He just didn’t look right.” How many computers can do that?