While the increase in lifesaving technology has extended both the length and quality of life for patients, critics have argued that health care professionals often read the technology rather than the patient. This critique strikes at the heart of nursing, which defines itself in terms of care for the whole person. Providing a comprehensive review of the issues surrounding the rapidly emerging field of technology, this collection describes how the nursing profession faces and deals with technological advances.

The complexities of technology intimately influence aspects of nursing in every setting, and directly challenge caring as the essence of nursing. The present collection gives practicing nurses, students of basic and advanced nursing, and other health care professionals an overview of the contemporary situation of technology in mainstream health care and how it impacts on the quality of that care.