(Ir)reconcilable differences? The debate concerning nursing and technology.
OBJECTIVE
To review and critique the debate concerning nursing and technology. Technology has been considered both at one and at odds with nursing.


METHODS
Mitcham's (1994) concepts of technological optimism and romanticism.


METHODS
Nursing literature since 1960.


METHODS
Historical analysis.


RESULTS
Technological optimists in nursing have viewed technology as an extension of and as readily assimilable into humanistic nursing practice, and nursing as socially advantaged by technology. Technological romantics have viewed technology as irreconcilable with nursing culture, as an expression of masculine culture, and as recirculating existing gender and social inequalities.


CONCLUSIONS
Both optimists and romantics essentialize technology and nursing, treating the two as singular and fixed entities. The (ir)reconcilability of nursing and technology may be a function of how devices are used by people in different contexts, or of the (ir)reconcilability of views of technology in nursing.
Sandelowski
M
M
Department of Women's and Children's Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27559, USA. msandelo.uncson@mhs.unc.edu
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D009729:Nursing; D013672:Technology; D018581:Technology Transfer