Karnataka - Bangalore   

‘Googling keeps doctors, nurses on their toes’

BANGALORE: The Google search engine has apparently made life difficult for medical professionals. Before visiting hospitals, patients are doing a lot of online research on their ailment and treatment and pose embarrassing questions to doctors and nurses.

This was the opinion of three experts who spoke at a national conference on “Theory Application in Nursing Practices” organised by the M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Nursing Education and Research here on Saturday.

B.R. Prabhakara, former Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka and Chief Executive of Gokula Education Foundation (Medical), said that some doctors had told him that patients were posing them such questions which they had not faced even during the viva of their postgraduate courses.

Nowadays, several patients spend a day or two searching the Net to learn in detail about their illness and the medicines they have to take.

Such being the situation, nurses should keep updating their knowledge constantly, Mr. Prabhakara advised nurses and nursing students who attended the two-day conference.

T. Dileep Kumar, Nursing Adviser to the Union Government and chairman of the Indian Nursing Council (INC), said that in the wake of the Internet explosion, nurses should be well-versed with the latest developments to explain and convince the patients about their illness and treatment plans.

“Of late, patients are well aware of the pros and cons of the treatments,” he said.

K. Reddamma, Professor and Head of the Department of Nursing, NIMHANS, too had a similar advice for nurses.

Mr. Kumar said that inspections by the INC had revealed that most of the government nursing schools and colleges in the country were in bad shape.

“They were set up decades ago with financial assistance from the WHO and UNESCO. Laboratories and books in most of these institutions had become obsolete,” he said.

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