As Dumb as We Want

As part of my job, I have to configure our software so that the clinical staff in the hospital can easily use it. I've gone to a couple of conferences where I've learned some tips and cool tricks. One thing I heard when I was in Florida last year was "We designed the system so that even a 2-year-old could use it." Wow, that sounds great, huh? They had to take a piece of software which, by the way can be quite powerful when it is used to its full potential, and dumb it down to the level of a 2-year-old so that a nurse with a college-level education could use it on a regular basis. It makes me sad to think that nursing has fallen so far behind that the IT industry has to either sell them outdated technology or talk to them as if they were children. Someone told me that nursing was at least 15 years behind the times in technology. I guess its good for me - it makes me look and feel really smart.