How Google Glass is Set to Revolutionize the Nursing Industry
Dec 2, 2014 | 9:00 am
What Google Glass is All About
Electronic devices that enhance the qualities of instant communications just keep getting more amazing. From e-mail to social platforms, digital imaging to voice applications, we live in a virtual world, sending electronically the events of our everyday lives.
Google has recently added to the conveniences of mobile technology that includes smart phones, tablets and laptops, with a wearable computer that allows the user to record and transmit information through voice activation. Worn in the same manner as a pair of glasses, the device is mounted just above the eye. Through simple voice commands, it can access information, send a message, take a photo or video.
The Advantages for Nurses
The nursing industry has already incorporated many conveniences of computer technology into the organizational and record keeping qualities of their profession. Computers aid nurses in managing patients and running the administrative side of the hospital or clinic. Computers are used to keep track of patient admissions and discharge. They are used to register important information regarding patient treatment, which can be sent by e-mail when a patient is transferred, as well as patient history. Examinations such as C-scans and X-rays may also be viewed from a computer.
With its hands-free applications, Google Glass could improve nursing efficiency even more. Coordinating special response teams could be done faster, as well as the monitoring and documentation of patient activities. Nurses could send direct imaging to residing physicians to access the patient’s condition and effectiveness of treatments.
From Text to Virtual Education
Textbook education is slowly fading into the past. A large number of nurses are now receiving their education online. With Google Glass, students may enter a virtual world of nursing education, tuning into their formal courses or observing the procedures of a clinical setting anytime and anywhere they might be.
Instructional courses could be given through imaging, such as showing a burn patient and prompting the student nurse with questions on what he or she would do to assist in treatment. Students could be monitored in a clinical setting as they learn to identify different types of medical equipment, with voice instructions to guide them in their use.
How Google Glass is Already Being Used in the Medical Field
Surgeons have already begun exploring the advantages of Google Glass, streaming their operations online, floating images into view and consulting with their colleagues who are able to observe the operation through video. Says Dr. Chris Kaeding, an orthopedic surgeon with the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, “They (Google Glass) have the potential to become a mainstream tool in the operating room.”
The optimism is kindled by the possibility of viewing patient records and medical information without the necessity of turning away from the patient. While there is some skepticism that the device could create a distraction during treatment of patients, those who have been experimenting with the use of Google Glass state it’s simply like learning to view traffic in the rear view mirror. You only glance into the above-the-eye viewing screen when you need to.
The greatest concern with using Google Glass is the possibility of privacy violations. Nurses must already be extremely cautious as to what they deliver by e-mail and in keeping computerized documentation in the work place, but Ohio State is already working on improving the device and creating an internal system that would allow the information to remain only within the medical field.