Patients’ Experiences of Technology in Care: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

Technology has conquered the world and also heath care as a part of it. It has stated that patients' needs and expectations have not been taken into account when using technology. From caring science point of view it is a problem to leave patients' experiences without attention. By summarizing the past qualitative studies of patients' experiences of technology in caring, the aim is to highlight the patients' perspective and increase knowledge of their experiences of technology in caring science and care as a basis for theory development. The purpose of the study is to describe patients' experiences of technology in caring. The main study question is: How do patients experience the technology in caring? The sub-study questions are: Which of the patients' experiences are caring, and which are non-caring. The results indicated that patients considered technology as a necessity or a device. Caring and nursing in the context of technology is perceived as good and caring when the technology is secure and easy to use, caring is competent and holistic, and patients' dignity is respected. Technology is perceived as non-caring when the focus in caring is only on technical interventions. More qualitative studies describing patients' experiences of technology in care are needed.