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Technology provides nurses with a new set of tools to enable and improve the nurse–patient relationship. Although not all information and communication technology is 100% accurate, it still provides the ability for readings which can be used to support the management of long-term conditions in the community. Additionally, technology can empower the patient, enabling them to take control over their condition and enable the nurses who support them. It can break down barriers, such as language and distance. However, it is not without its drawbacks. This paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of community nurses using technology.

Modern technology has always played a hand in shaping the way we live, work and care for those around us. In this article, Guy and Debbie Dewsbury take a look at the innovations in this area, and how they can help those working and living in care

Nurse call systems can benefit staff in a variety of ways, be it through improved patient care, improved communication or nurse efficiency. Guy Drewsbury and Debbie Ballard give an overview of this essential service

Nurse call systems have a wide range of performance, functions and prices. A good system could be invaluable to your care home. A bad one, or the wrong one, could simply add to staff workload. The key, say Guy Dewsbury and Debbie Ballard, is to do your research

Healthcare assistants (HCAs) and assistant practitioners (APs) can be using technology for much of the time during their working day, without really thinking about the technology itself. This article looks at some of the ways in which technologies will be part of the new care provision as well as technologies that can be used to assist caring for someone.

This paper traces the development of information and communication (ICT) within health care and the emergence of telehealth as a key component of modern health care delivery as health care moves from the 'face to face age' to the 'information age'. The paper examines the interface of ICT and nursing practice and highlights the limited evidence relating to the nursing contribution within telehealth particularly beyond data input and output analysis for other health care personnel. Additionally, the absence of research relating to the impact of ICT upon nurses and their working lives is identified. The paper concludes that nurses need to engage more fully with ICT so that they contribute to shaping the care system and emerge as leaders of the new care systems delivering future clinical activity.

Guy Dewsbury and Debbie Ballard talk us through the evolution of the nurse call system and suggest ways in which care and residential homes can use telecare to ensure residents are safe and that providers adhere to appropriate legislation

With proposals for a paperless NHS, care homes need to consider how they will adapt to an electronic health-care system. Guy Dewsbury and Debbie Ballard discuss how technology can support nurses and care assistants as well as residents

This article introduces the notion of telecare technology and its use within the community to enable older people to live independently. It identifies the essential things that healthcare assistants (HCAs) should be aware of when working with telecare.

The role of community nursing services is changing and the ability to adapt to the new roles and challenges using technology is becoming increasingly important. This article considers the positive role that using patient management systems and care registers can play in improving and developing new work patterns through the use of online, shared working practices.

Background There is growing interest in assisted living technologies to support independence at home. Such technologies should ideally be designed ‘in the wild’ i.e. taking account of how real people live in real homes and communities. The ATHENE (Assistive Technologies for Healthy Living in Elders: Needs Assessment by Ethnography) project seeks to illuminate the living needs of older people and facilitate the co-production with older people of technologies and services. This paper describes the development of a cultural probe tool produced as part of the ATHENE project and how it was used to support home visit interviews with elders with a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, family circumstances, health conditions and assisted living needs. Method Thirty one people aged 60 to 98 were visited in their homes on three occasions. Following an initial interview, participants were given a set of cultural probe materials, including a digital camera and the ‘Home and Life Scrapbook’ to complete in their own time for one week. Activities within the Home and Life Scrapbook included maps (indicating their relationships to people, places and objects), lists (e.g. likes, dislikes, things they were concerned about, things they were comfortable with), wishes (things they wanted to change or improve), body outline (indicating symptoms or impairments), home plan (room layouts of their homes to indicate spaces and objects used) and a diary. After one week, the researcher and participant reviewed any digital photos taken and the content of the Home and Life Scrapbook as part of the home visit interview. Findings The cultural probe facilitated collection of visual, narrative and material data by older people, and appeared to generate high levels of engagement from some participants. However, others used the probe minimally or not at all for various reasons including limited literacy, physical problems (e.g. holding a pen), lack of time or energy, limited emotional or psychological resources, life events, and acute illness. Discussions between researchers and participants about the materials collected (and sometimes about what had prevented them completing the tasks) helped elicit further information relevant to assisted living technology design. The probe materials were particularly helpful when having conversations with non-English speaking participants through an interpreter. Conclusions Cultural probe methods can help build a rich picture of the lives and experiences of older people to facilitate the co-production of assisted living technologies. But their application may be constrained by the participant’s physical, mental and emotional capacity. They are most effective when used as a tool to facilitate communication and development of a deeper understanding of older people’s needs.

It is now widely realised that the home is likely to prove an important site for new information technologies (Venkatesh 1985; 1995; Crabtree et al 2001). This book documents the extent to which the convergence of a number of technologies that link computers with various communication and entertainment technologies, have created new possibilities, of home shopping, video on demand, home banking, and so on. At the same time other reports such as the EU Report on the Electronic Home (Moran, 1993) have identified a number of social trends near zero population growth, the rise of the proportion of the elderly, the decline of multigenerational households, the increased number of 'non-traditional' homes, new forms of work, increasing leisure time, etc that may prove fundamental in shaping ideas about the development of the electronic home. Until comparatively recently, however, little attempt has been made to systematically study home life, as the EC (Moran, 1993) commented