Why expectations of telecare are often wrong

Telemedicine in practice
An ethnographic study
By Annemarie van Hout, Dick Willems, Marike Hettinga, Jeannette Pols, Liz Carey-Libbrecht
English

Telecare is increasingly applied in nursing care with the expectation that it will lead to valuable improvements in measurements, data collection, efficiency and communication options. However, science and technology studies have shown that new technology often belies expectations and can lead to unanticipated results. We use an ethnographic approach to study a nursing practice in which nurses introduced a digital ‘symptom diary’ in palliative care. We show that the nurses’ expectations differed from the way patients actually used the device. Furthermore, the nurses realized that the diary conflicted with ideals of good care that were crucial in their practice. Finally, the approach included an ‘extra’ technology, a webcam, that brought difficulties of its own. Over time nurses and patients adjusted their expectations and their use of the device. This paper contributes to the understanding of how expectations are met in practice, and of how care professionals and patients deal with that. With these insights, care can be improved as more grounded decisions can be made on what technology is to be used, whether (unexpected) outcomes are desirable and, therefore ultimately, whether the preferred care is given.

Keywords

  • telecare
  • expectations
  • nursing practice
  • science and technology studies
  • ethnography
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info