Inappropriate trust in technology: implications for critical care nurses.

To explore evidence from the literature that critical care nurses may have inappropriate levels of trust in the technological equipment they use and the implications of this for patient safety.Nurses in intensive care units are required to observe the operation of an array of complex equipment. Failure of this equipment can have potentially fatal consequences for the patient. Research from other settings, such as the work of airline pilots, suggests that experienced operators of highly reliable automation may display inappropriately high levels of trust in the automation and this can lead to inadequate monitoring of the equipment by the operator. Inadequate monitoring means that the operator may fail to notice that the equipment is not functioning correctly which may have serious consequences.An initial search was made of a number of databases including Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, Pubmed and ScienceDirect. Extensive use was also made of citations found in articles uncovered by this initial search.Evidence suggests that there is potential for critical care nurses to display complacent attitudes. In addition, there are a number of reasons why the consequences of this complacency are not as visible as in other settings.If nurses are not aware of the potential and consequences of inappropriate trust, there is a real possibility that patients may suffer harm because of it. There is an urgent need for more research to identify direct evidence of complacency and its consequences. There is also a need for these issues to be highlighted in the training of intensive care nurses and there are implications for intensive care unit practice protocols and equipment manufacturers.