Technology in Healthcare: A Nursing Perspective in Canada

This scholarly paper examines the integration of technology within the Canadian healthcare system, specifically focusing on its impact on nursing practices. The paper explores the advantages of health-tech, such as enhanced patient care and reduced adverse incidents, while also addressing significant challenges, including insufficient funding, cybersecurity concerns, and nurses' apprehension about the impact of technology on their workflow and patient care. It highlights the importance of electronic medical records and telehealth services, while also acknowledging the barriers to implementation like interoperability issues and poor computer literacy. The paper further analyzes the nurses' stance on technology, emphasizing the need for training and improved computer literacy to overcome these challenges and improve the quality of care. In conclusion, the study emphasizes the need for strategic resource allocation, improved infrastructure, and the importance of addressing nurses' concerns to fully realize the benefits of technology in healthcare.

Running head: SCHOLARLY PAPER
Technology in healthcare
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
Several technologically advanced devices have been discovered and implemented across
healthcare systems that have not only enhanced the health of patients, but have also decreased
rates of adverse incidents. This report identified that despite the advantages of healthcare
technology, Canada does not get adequate funding for implementing these and the nursing
professionals display uncertainty and apprehensions about the impact of these technologies
on their work performance. Some basic barriers to their implementation include concern for
cyber security, patient confidentiality, interoperability, effect on workflow, and poor
computer literacy.

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Table of Contents
Issue............................................................................................................................................3
Background................................................................................................................................3
Stance.........................................................................................................................................5
Critical analysis..........................................................................................................................6
Conclusion and implication to nursing......................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Issue
Technology in healthcare, commonly referred to as health-tech refers to the usage of
technologies that have been developed with the aim of enhancing the healthcare system
(Bhatt, Dey & Ashour, 2017). From robotic-assisted surgeries to telehealth, technology
infused healthcare tools are being integrated at all stages of the healthcare domain in order to
counteract two areas namely, efficiency and quality. The Canada Health Infoway is an
organization that creates the provision for implementation of digital tools such as, electronic
medical records, and it obtained roughly $2.5 billion federal funding (Gheorghiu, 2017).
While the findings are surprising since only less than half healthcare professionals in Canada
get notified when patients are admitted to the hospital or emergency department. Similarly,
there are extremely less number of professionals who communicate with the patients through
email and telehealth services, thus contributing to the low rank of Canada in the list of
nations that offers online care to patients (Canadian Nursing Association, 2020). This
scholarly paper will discuss the relevance of the identified issue and will also articulate the
nursing priorities or stances, followed by the implications to nursing practice.
Background
Nurses generally adorn the role of care coordinator and communication director for
their patients, which in turn calls for the presence of assorted skill set for ensuring finest
delivery of care services. Information published by the Canadian Institute for Health
Information (CIHI) reported that there was only 0.7% growth in nursing workforce in Canada
(Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2018). With the continuing nurse shortage across
Canada, the necessity for implementing technology to upkeep nursing activities is becoming
progressively obligatory to meet the ever-increasing demands of health services. In the year
2015, the entire worth of healthcare IT market was an estimated 870 million dollars in

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Canada (Statistics Research Development, 2016). However, the healthcare sector of Canada
appears to lag in adoption and implementation of this technological innovation,
notwithstanding the fact that smartphones and IT have become an essential part of life.
According to the Canadian Nurses Association (2017) nurses working across
community-based settings (34%) display an increased likelihood of maintaining electronic
record compared to those in hospital setting, who maintain a combination of electronic and
paper record keeping systems (34% vs. 63%). In the year 2017, there were only 23% nurses
who maintained electronic records, and new nurses did not think that the quality of care
improved after implementation of information technology.
As claimed by Alas, Godlovitch, Mohan, Jelinski and Khan (2017) Canada has a
strong standing in clinical research, evidence-based medicine, and health services research,
but a smaller amount in positively implementing new-fangled knowledge in
practice. Resource constraint has been identified as a major factor that prevents the
implementation of technology in nursing practice since the development cycles are long and
there are regulations on market access (Denis, 2018). Strategic resource allocation has also
been identified significant, nonetheless majority of the Canadian healthcare decision-makers
highlight the absence of a formal procedure. Rigid administration funding arrangements do
not permit the transfer of assets between and amid healthcare departments or across fiscal
years. Nurses often report that it is generally difficult for them to maintain security of the
patient data (MacNeil et al., 2019). Between the nurses accessing the internal messages and
patient records through smartphones and computers, and increasing efficacy of digital
hackers in stealing such data, the hospitals are currently subjected to a range of cyber security
challenges (Kruse, Frederick, Jacobson & Monticone, 2017). Moreover, interoperability, or
the capability for numerous software systems for exchanging data with each another, is a
significant challenge for nurses today (Gordon & Catalini, 2018). Most of the nursing staff

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agree on making electronic health records more interoperable since nurses have to manually
feed new information to these records, which consumes substantial time. Adopting to new
technologies are also frustrating and most nurses are uneasy with the adaption that affects
their documentation, workflow and patient care. While technology has the ability of
transforming healthcare, until the nurses are able to overcome their apprehensions about these
tools, the benefits will not be realised in the nation. Furthermore, other barriers reported by
the nurses were extreme work demands, lack of proper workstations and mobile devices,
multiple logins, and poor alignment with workflow. Moreover, it is frequently problematic to
directly evaluate the patient and the expenditure benefit investments of novel technology on
patient care (Abelson et al., 2017).
Stance
I hold the standpoint that technology in nursing helps in enhancing patient care, both
in relation to the efficacy of the care delivered and in terms of patient satisfaction. I find that
in majority of healthcare settings, technology is being applied with the sole intention of
enhancing nurses’ communication with physicians, patients and other nurses. It also plays a
key role in decreasing the instances of administrative delays or medical errors, which in turn
have a strong impact on the general quality of the delivered care (Abimanyi-Ochom et al.,
2019). However, most new nurses hold the stance that they lack the ability to communicate in
an effective manner that is vital for the implementation of technology (Registered Nurses'
Association of Ontario, 2019).
The privacy risks associated with these technological advancements often make
corrupt people gain access to significant patient information, thus violating patient
confidentiality (Torous & Roberts, 2017). Despite the promising benefits of technology,
nurses often argue against their implementation due to poor technological interface that is not
in alignment with ergonomic principles and human factors. Additionally, telemedicine

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eliminates the opportunity of directly interacting with the patients in person, thus preventing
nursing staff from delivered person-centred compassionate care.
Critical analysis
According to Martin, Polisena, Dendukuri, Rhainds and Sampietro-Colom (2016)
despite the availability of sophisticated healthcare technology in Canada, the tools and
devices are not commonly used by nursing professionals and other members of primary care
teams. Nurses employed across different parts of the world are challenged to deliver the best
available care services to their patients and the implementation of technology in healthcare
acts as an enabler for them (Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, 2019). In the digital
age, nurses play an influential role in delivering care at the patient bedside, with the
assistance of technology. Though the stance is consistent with findings that most surgeries
and treatments that are associated with technology such as robotic surgery are extremely
expensive, and lack of funding makes it difficult for the nursing staff to provide treatment to
the patients (Khorgami, Li, Jackson, Howard & Sclabas, 2019; Blomqvist & Busby, 2017).
Research evidences also elucidate that technology in healthcare changes the nurses’
workflow and also leads to security and privacy concerns (Zadvinskis, Smith & Yen, 2018).
However, technology prevents wastage of time and allows nursing professionals to
immediately attend to their patients and provide treatment. Not only has MR system, drug
management technology, EHR, and telemedicine enhanced healthcare in remote and rural
regions, but have also decreased the chances of medical errors that might occur due to usage
of paper based patient records or communication problems (Boxer & Ellimoottil, 2019).
Hence, the major gaps are related to the poor infrastructure, lack of financial aid and
resistance amid nurses. This calls for the need of nurses to attend training programs on the
usage and implementation of health technology. They must also increase their computer

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literacy, enhance their communication skills and engage in evidence-based practice that will
help in better adoption of this innovation.
Conclusion and implication to nursing
To conclude, in the domain of health and social care, technology allows the nurses to
enhance the efficacy of the care delivered and also improves communication with colleagues
and patients. The days of painstaking charting and automatically filing patient records are
declining. With developing technologies in electronic recordkeeping and telehealth, the
patients are gaining ease of access to their information, than ever before. While several nurses
might oppose the use of technology in Canadian healthcare system, it has been affirmed by
researchers that technology increases accessibility, creates a positive influence on nursing
shortage, and reduces medical errors. There is a need to direct future practice to determining
why and how technology acts as threat to human element and the strategies that can be
adopted to avert data and security threats.

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References
Abelson, J. S., Kaufman, E., Symer, M., Peters, A., Charlson, M., & Yeo, H. (2017). Barriers
and benefits to using mobile health technology after operation: A qualitative
study. Surgery, 162(3), 605-611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surg.2017.05.007
Abimanyi-Ochom, J., Mudiyanselage, S. B., Catchpool, M., Firipis, M., Dona, S. W. A., &
Watts, J. J. (2019). Strategies to reduce diagnostic errors: a systematic review. BMC
medical informatics and decision making, 19(1), 174. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-
019-0901-1
Alas, J. K., Godlovitch, G., Mohan, C. M., Jelinski, S. A., & Khan, A. A. (2017). Regulatory
framework for conducting clinical research in Canada. Canadian Journal of
Neurological Sciences, 44(5), 469-474. https://doi.org/10.1017/cjn.2016.458
Bhatt, C., Dey, N., & Ashour, A. S. (Eds.). (2017). Internet of things and big data
technologies for next generation healthcare. Retrieved from
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Boxer, R. J., & Ellimoottil, C. (2019). Advantages and utilization of
telemedicine. mHealth, 5. doi: 10.21037/mhealth.2019.04.02
Canadian Institute for Health Information. (2018). Canada’s nursing workforce experiences
slowest growth in a decade. Retrieved from https://www.cihi.ca/en/canadas-nursing-
workforce-experiences-slowest-growth-in-a-decade

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Canadian Nursing Association. (2017). 2017 National Survey of Canadian Nurses: Use of
Digital Health Technology in Practice. Retrieved from
https://www.cna-aiic.ca/en/nursing-practice/the-practice-of-nursing/nursing-
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