ORIGINAL RESEARCH The role of technology in critical care nursing Cheryl Crocker & Stephen Timmons Accepted for publication 6 August 2008 Correspondence to C. Crocker: e-mail: cheryl.crocker@nuh.nhs.uk Cheryl Crocker MSc PhD RN Nurse Consultant Critical Care, Nottingham University Hospital, UK Stephen Timmons BA PhD RN Associate Professor School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK CROCKER C. & TIMMONS S. (2009) CROCKER C. & TIMMONS S. (2009) The role of technology in critical care nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing 65(1), 52–61 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04838.x Abstract Title. The role of technology in critical care nursing. Aim. This paper is a report of a study to identify the meaning for critical care nurses of technology related to weaning from mechanical ventilation and to explore how that technology was used in practice. Background. The literature concerned with the development of critical care (intensive care and high dependency units) focuses mainly on innovative medical technology. Although this use of technology in critical care is portrayed as new, it actually represents a transfer of technology from operating theatres. Method. An ethnographic study was conducted and data were collected on one critical care unit in a large teaching hospital over a 6-month period in 2004. The methods included participant observation, interviews and the collection of field notes. Findings. The overall theme ‘The nursing–technology relation’ was identified. This comprised three sub-themes: definition of technology, technology transferred and technology transformed. Novice nurses took a task-focussed approach to weaning, treating it as a ‘medical’ technology transferred to them from doctors. Expert nurses used technology differently and saw its potential to become a ‘nursing technology’. Conclusion. Nurses need to examine how they can adapt and to ‘reconfigure’ technology so that it can be transformed into a nursing technology. Those tech- nologies that do not fit with nursing may have no place there. Rather than simply extending and expanding their roles through technology transfer, nurses should transform those technologies that preserve the essence of nursing and can contribute to a positive outcome for patients. Keywords: critical care, empirical research report, ethnography, nursing technology, technology transfer Introduction The global literature concerned with the development of intensive care units (ICU) portrays a view dominated by innovative medical technology (Lassen 1953, Hamilton 1963, Ibsen 1966, Hilberman 1975, Pontoppidan et al. 1977, Cule 1989, Crocket & Mercer 1995, Gilbertson 1995, Le Fanu 1999, Kesecioglu 2000). This view of history serves to marginalize the nursing contribution (Fairman 1992, Fairman & Lynaugh 1998). Furthermore this technology 52 Ó 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd JAN JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING