The Threat of Becoming Automatons

Technology presents a perpetual threat of making the user of the technology into an automaton, someone who is in the service of the technology rather than a human with full emotion and decisional capacity. Although technology can help to keep nurses’ practice safe and up to date, it lacks imagination. The habit of imagination keeps nurses’ practice human. For it is by the habit of imagination that nurses understand their patients’ lives. By understanding patients’ lives—including what they would do for themselves to gain independence—nurses can apply technology in a way that is in the service of the goals of nursing. In this way, the habit of imagination preserves both patients’ and nurses’ humanity in the world of automation and technology.