Editor's Diary

For example, if hourly urine outputs are ordered, the computer complicates and bloats what is otherwise a straightforward, patient-centered exercise. That is, rather than simply note the output and vitals on a chart, the nurse checks the output, retreats to the computer, logs in, finds the patient’s file, scrolls through screen after screen, and finally plugs in the data.

With so many data to enter, is it any wonder that ICU nurses appear to spend more time serving the computers than the patients? Could this proliferation of nursing entries all be the result of the fine print in "the regulations"?

Nowadays, many aortic procedures, such as open aneurysm repair and aorto-bifemoral bypass, have ceded their role to endovascular therapy. As a result, aortic procedures are vanishing from the skill sets of many vascular surgeons, especially the younger ones.

Similarly, electronic dropdowns and radio buttons appear to be supplanting – or at the very least, diverting – the concrete nursing skills required to care for these patients. We protest that that open and endotherapy are complementary, but it cannot be so unless the infrastructure to provide care for both treatment paradigms remains viable and intact.

Today’s nurses seem to spend so much time making sure the computer has what it needs that I fear for those of the patients. Indeed, the loss of hands-on nursing skills may be an unintended consequence of the endotherapy revolution.

Would people laugh if I started carrying a folding chair on rounds?

Dr. Andros is the medical editor of Vascular Specialist.