The nurses' touch: An irreplaceable component of caring

REVIVE Is an Evidence-Based Approach for Nurses to Universally Apply Trauma-Informed Care in Maternity Settings

The principles of trauma-informed care-safety, compassion, collaboration, communication, autonomy, and empowerment-are also the domains most vulnerable to implicit bias and most cited in adverse outcomes in maternal health. Perinatal nurses must practice trauma-informed care universally and thereby foster and advance person-centered care for all individuals with respect to race, ethnicity, religion, or lived experiences. In this article, we present evidence-based nursing interventions, collectively called REVIVE, that are known to promote principles of trauma-informed care. Taken together, the REVIVE interventions may improve health outcomes and reduce disparities in maternal health outcomes because they are proactive nursing interventions independent of implicit bias. REVIVE is described here and intended for use by individual nurses or health care teams to implement and evaluate in different maternity settings.

Semi-autonomous touch method merging robot's autonomous touch and user-operated touch for improving user experience in robot touch

The demand for therapeutic robots to alleviate mental health problems is growing. Studies have shown that people's mental health improves when they are touched. Consequently, therapeutic robots are designed to alleviate stress through robot's autonomous touch. However, robot's autonomous touch can sometimes cause discomfort to recipients. This paper proposes a semi-autonomous touch method that merges robot's autonomous touch with user-operated touch to mitigate discomfort while maintaining the sensation of being touched by another person. We conducted an experiment involving 24 participants who were touched on the neck by robots under three conditions: robot's autonomous touch, user-operated touch, and the proposed semi-autonomous touch method condition. Additionally, the study investigated participants' impressions of the robot in each condition. The results showed that semi-autonomous touch condition mitigated discomfort more effectively compared with the robot's autonomous touch method condition. It also enhanced the feeling of being touched by another person entity and suppressed interaction boredom compared with the user-operated touch method condition. Participants reported higher trustworthiness and perceived friendliness in robots utilizing the semi-autonomous touch method compared to those with autonomous touch method condition. These findings indicate that robots featuring the proposed semi-autonomous touch method can provide a comforting experience, leveraging the therapeutic benefits of being touched by another person, and underscore their potential in mental health applications.

Reassembling nursing in the digital age: An actor-network theory perspective

This article explores the application of actor-network theory (ANT) to the nursing profession, proposing a novel perspective in understanding nursing in the context of modern digital healthcare. Traditional grand nursing theories, while foundational, often fail to encapsulate the dynamic and complex nature of nursing, particularly in an era of rapid technological advancements and shifting societal dynamics. ANT, with its emphasis on the relationships between human and nonhuman actors, offers a framework to understand nursing beyond traditional paradigms. This article makes two key arguments: first, that nursing can be viewed as a highly organised social assemblage, where both human (nurses, patients and policymakers) and nonhuman actors (technologies, medical equipment, institutional policies) play a crucial role, and second, that ANT can be used to enhance existing nursing theory to better understand the role of technology in nursing practice. The article considers how ANT can provide a more holistic and adaptable model for describing the nursing profession, particularly in an era where technology plays an integral role in healthcare delivery. It discusses the implications of viewing nursing through ANT, highlighting the need for nursing education and practice to adapt to the interconnected and technologically advanced nature of modern healthcare. The article also acknowledges the limitations of ANT, particularly its potential oversimplification of the complex ethical dimensions inherent in nursing and its focus on observable phenomena.

The digital dilemma in nursing: a critique of care in the digital age

There is an inherent tension between the nursing profession's empathetic, human-centric ethos and the impersonal nature of digital technology. However, digital solutions such as robot carers could offer convenience, dignity and reduced feelings of burden, so there is potentially a significant misalignment between nursing concepts of care and contemporary patient needs. The notion of 'care' should be reconceptualised to include digital advancements, aligning practice with changing patient expectations and technological progress. A strategy to do this could involve a philosophical overhaul of nursing care models, integration of advanced patient-centric technologies, comprehensive education and training, collaborative development of nursing technologies, showcasing successful digital integration and policy advocacy for digital care models. This transformation is essential if nursing is to stay relevant and effective in the digital era, bridging the traditional care and modern healthcare needs while maintaining its core ethic of care.