Technology concept in the view of Iranian nurses

BACKGROUND: Over the years, the concept technology has modified, especially from the viewpoint of the development of scientific knowledge as well as the philosophical and artistic aspects. However, the concept of technology in nursing are still poorly understood. Only small qualitative studies, especially in Iran, have investigated this phenomenon and they just are about information technology. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of the concept of technology in the view of Iranian nurses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was qualitative explorative study which was done with a purposeful sampling of 23 nurses (staffs, supervisors and chief nurse managers) working in Isfahan hospitals. Unstructured interviews were including 13 individual interviews and 2 focused-group interviews. In addition to this, filed notes and memos were used in data collection. After this data transcribing was done and then conventional content analysis was used for data coding and classification. RESULTS: The results showed that there are various definitions for technology among nurses. In the view of nurses, technology means using new equipment, computers, information technology, etc). Data analysis revealed that nurses understand technology up to three main concepts: Change, Equipment and Knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: In deep overview on categories, we found that the most important concept about technology in nursing perspective is equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to develop deep understanding about the possible concepts technology among nurses. We suppose that technology concepts must be defined separately in all disciplines.