Advancing the Theory of Technological Competency as Caring in Nursing: The Universal Technological Domain

Abstract

Sophisticated technologies are accepted as integral with contemporary life, occupying a universal technological domain that is coextensive with humans and their environment. In human healthcare, the risk for depersonalization of persons receiving care renders the preservation of humanness as essential, particularly in technology-dense arenas. Nurses are challenged to sustain their caring nursing practice while responding to the complex technological demands of modern healthcare. This paper explicates a further development of the theory of technological competency as caring in nursing (TCCN) that embraces the universal domain of technology. Within the theoretic lens of the TCCN, 3 key elements demonstrate the fundamental process of knowing persons within the universal technological domain: technological knowing, designing, and participative engaging. Underpinning this process of nursing are concepts of human naturalness, human wholeness, and nursing technology connoisseurship. From the perspective of the TCCN, the nurse appreciates and knows persons more fully as active participants in their care rather than as passive recipients of care, and thereby advances the preservation of humanness.