WORKER PARTICIPATION IN TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: MEDICAL ADVANCES AND THE CHANGING ROLES OF NURSES.
Contributors: Council for National Academic Awards (Great Britain)
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 428
Subjects: Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Available from UMI in association with The British Library.

The research objective was: to determine (a) the extent of the present involvement of neonatal intensive care nurses in technology assessment, (b) their perceptions of the technologies with which they worked, and (c) their perceptions of requirements for improvements in the technology assessment process.

Nurses and senior staff (nursing supervisors, NICU consultants and training officers) in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of five hospitals in London were included in the study sample. They completed questions regarding new medical technologies in general and NICU technologies in particular.

Nurses and senior staff believed that nurses' training does not prepare them adequately for new technologies. Further, in some instances, nurses had not received training regarding a new technology prior to using it.

Neither nurses nor senior staff were fully aware of formal processes for technology assessment in their hospitals, but did identify informal processes. While a small minority of the nurses had been directly involved in decisions regarding the new technologies, more than half had made recommendations. The nurses considered their level of involvement unsatisfactory, and believed (as did the senior staff) that their hospital could improve its procedures for purchasing, introducing and using new technologies. Most of the nurses who were planing to remain in neonatal intensive care were dissatisfied with their involvement and with their hospital's methods for adopting new technologies.

One-third of the nurses and most of the senior staff identified examples of nurses' having contributed to the development and adaptation of new equipment and procedures, either formally or informally.

The impacts considered most significant by nurse participants were: job stress, increased ethical, legal or social concerns, and decreased reliance on clinical judgment or skills of nurses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-09, Section: B, page: 4286.

Thesis (PH.D.)--COUNCIL FOR NATIONAL ACADEMIC AWARDS (UNITED KINGDOM), 1990.

School code: 0935.