Got Technology? How it can—and can't—Make a Difference in the Nursing Shortage

Abstract

With a nursing shortage of unprecedented proportions looming ahead of us, information technology (IT) is increasingly being touted as the silver bullet. Whereas IT can indeed make a difference in many critical areas, there are some things it simply cannot do. This article examines what IT can do to ameliorate the effects of the nursing shortage—detailing foundational areas in which IT can play a role and emerging technologies that can help further the practice of nursing—and what IT cannot do, from exploring its potential threats to delineating its inadequacies.