Can Penelope the robot solve the nursing shortage?
January 6, 2004 — Laurie Tarkan’s article in today’s New York Times, “Nursing Shortage Forces Hospitals to Cope Creatively,” describes fairly well the dangerous short-staffing that has driven the nursing shortage, and predictions that the shortage will worsen in coming years. It also manages to paint a remarkably rosy picture of the present and future, exploring the measures some hospitals are apparently taking to improve nurses’ working conditions and benefits. Though the piece is serious and generally seems to reflect understanding of the importance of nurses, it also opens and closes with discussions of health care robots like Penelope that seem to suggest nurses are gabby, shiftless subordinates who could be replaced by more efficient machines. more…
