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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | F e b r u a r y 2015
Where No Nurse Has Gone Before
Is the Or of the future a dream or a nightmare?
R
egular readers of this column know that technology creeps
me out. Like everyone, though, without my smartphone and
computer I'm kind of lost in space. I'm convinced it won't be
long before my job, and yours, is replaced by robots. How do you feel
about the OR of this future?
More than meets the eye
Automated electrical wheelchairs chit-chat with patients as they're
transported from the waiting room into pre-op, where Randy the
Robot scans their patient bracelets — bar-coded with encyclopedic
medical records — assigns them to patient bays and effortlessly lifts
them onto stretchers. The side rails go up and the monitoring scan
begins as soon as the patient's tuchus hits the mattress. Randy's vein-
finding vision means the IV is in before the patient can say "Get me
B E H I N D C L O S E D D O O R S
Paula Watkins, rN, CNOr
