The following blog was written by Mrs. Mary Welch, a Nursing Fundamentals Teacher at Jesse C. Carson High School.
Times have certainly changed. Changed very quickly and profoundly. When I was in high school I took Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, just like students do today. I had a slide ruler for calculations. We did not have calculators, even simple ones. My brother, his senior year, 1974, at NCSU finally got a Texas Instrument Calculator that would add, subtract, divide, and multiply. He was a Civil Engineering major. The calculator cost $100.00. Now you can buy them at the dollar store.
I have been an RN for 36 years. Twenty-six of them have been in the classroom. In nursing I was trained to observe my patients for any slight change in their appearance, sound or odor. This could indicate a change in their status. We did not have monitors. In fact, I learned to give injections with glass syringes (before AIDS), monitor a fetal heartbeat with a stethoscope and monitor contractions, strength and duration with my hand on a belly.
I tell you this so perhaps you will understand my perspective. The world is rapidly changing. Technology has opened many doors. But, I fear we are raising a generation that does not know, or understand, how important human contact is.
My husband and I went out to dinner Friday night with some friends. After dinner we had coffee on a patio and enjoyed talking to one another. A group of young people joined us on the patio. Every single one of them was looking at their phone or other device the entire time. No one was speaking and they all sat facing different directions. In health care there is a phenomenon called “Failure to Thrive.” If a baby, child, elderly person, anyone is deprived of human contact, they do not develop, grow and will even regress to the point of death. My fear is that we are raising a generation that will fail to thrive due to lack of human interaction.
Please don’t forget, in this age of technology, that students still need us to talk to them, look them in the eye and spend our time with them. The world has changed. People have not. We still require human interaction. By all means, use the technology just don’t forget the person.
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