Schneider, L. (2011) States that “Information technology is the use of computers and software to manage information. The information technology department of a large company would be responsible for storing information, protecting information, processing the information, transmitting the information as necessary, and later retrieving information as necessary.”
In older days, the ways of storing information was by writing all information on paper in and storing it away in files in large store rooms. Today, we take for granted the ease of getting information by using technology such as word documents on the computer, transferring files through to other places via email, and using internet search engines such as Google to gather information.
Visual information such as criminal’s fingerprints used to be inked manually and sent away to fingerprint experts who studied them for days linking fingerprints to others to match them. Nowadays, police use electronic devices to scan fingerprints and the computers do the work to match them up. (Weir, D.T. (2011).
Looking at information technology from an occupational therapists point of view, hospital records are the first thing that comes to my mind. Although a lot of hospitals still use the traditional way of storing hospital notes in which they are written down on paper and stored away, some hospitals use technology to store them by entering the information in to a computer system which can be accessible lots of places rather than just the one location. Although these ways both have its advantages and disadvantages; such as paper records can get old and worn but also show signatures of medical staff, and computerised notes are more accessible to other hospitals and can hold a lot of information, but could be lost in such ways including computer breakdowns and power shortages, my personal prediction is that in the future all patient records will be kept in a computer system rather than manually in folders. This is because technology is rapidly improving and developing and I believe there will soon be a system reliable enough to securely store this sort of information.
Information technology is so commonly used today, that most people will use it without acknowledging it. Blogging, for example, is used on the internet, from computers, laptops, notebooks, ipod, ipads and other electronic material. And for the relevance of being a student, information technology is used every day for our assignments, whether that be typing them up, searching for information on the internet, gathering information from Moodle and handing in assignments through Moodle or as we did last year; the Turnitin site TURNITIN SITE: http://turnitin.com/static/index.php
IT devices and systems that I feel comfortable using are Microsoft computers rather than Macs. This is because I have grown up with the Microsoft computers and although I have heard great things about the Mac, I have never ventured out to look at one to use it. I am competent in using Microsoft documents such as Word and Excel because I used and learnt a lot about them in school in computing, but there are always new things to learn in all information processing programs. A useful way to find out how to do something on one of these programs, is to search it on Youtube at www.youtube.com. For example, if you wanted to create a password for a private document you are creating then you can search “microsoft word create password” in Youtube, and various videos will show up which will direct you through creating this.
Thinking of things that may limit my use of Information Technology, I think of electricity. I use my laptop for most of my IT use and when I am not near a power point or in an area that has no electricity, my laptop will run out of battery and therefore limit my use. Things that would expand my use of it would be when things that have always been done manually, that have changed to electronically. This almost forces me to use information technology to stay with the latest developments in IT.
IT is being used in occupational therapy practice for things such as client information and clinical records, for communication between other health and medical professionals and is used for faxing and emailing.
Issues that exist around occupational therapists adoption of information technology systems and tools are that because the technology is changing and developing, all occupational therapists will have to know how to use it properly. This may be difficult for older occupational therapists as computers are relatively new in themselves, and with programs rapidly developing, it can be hard to keep up with especially if people are still getting used to the basics of the technology.
I can envisage information technology becoming a potential tool of practice as it is becoming more and more widely used in society and in every work place. The advance in information technology is quickly climbing and technology is becoming quicker and more efficient than the old ways of keeping, recording and using information. Therefore it will soon become more widespread and I predict that it will become essential in occupational therapy practice, as it is in all general workplaces.
A great use and understanding of information technology is becoming almost vital in today’s world for those who are in practice and even in our daily lives. Keeping up with the technology in practice is obviously very important because if you do not know how to use it or refuse to use it, then you will not be able to keep up with the work pace and other colleges. Simply, when you are in a workplace, you do your job as how everybody does it; meaning that if co-workers are using the latest information technology, then you must be able to use it as well. Having an understanding of it in our daily lives helps because it is being more talked about and so much slang is being used in everyday conversation about things like ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’, that if you are not up with the play, you will have no idea what anyone is on about. It also helps us to keep in touch with loved ones overseas and find out information on the internet at any time whenever we need to.
Ethical implications that arise from capturing, sharing and transferring of information via IT devices or systems is being commonly talked about and discussed. Privacy and confidentiality can be so easily violated through the ease of access to information. Even worse, because it is so easy to access information about people and subjects from ANYONE or ANY company, incorrect information and data can be shared and therefore creates a huge debate on whether the ease of access is a positive advance in technology or negative. I feel it easily goes both ways.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property Office (2010) states that, “Intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term used for human innovations and creativity that are capable of being protected under national law and international treaties.” So intellectual property is, for example, if you invent something or have an idea in your head for a development in technology, then you want to own that idea so that nobody else can steal it. You then seek the copyright protection so that you have rights over your idea.
Social Justice
From researching what the term, ‘social justice’ means, I find a fascinating answer – that it is very hard for people to explain. Which makes me wonder if it really has an exact definition and if anybody truly knows what it means... or is it more of a topic for discussion and debate? Even so, upon my findings, WiseGeek (2011)¹, said, ” A general definition of social justice is hard to arrive at and even harder to implement. In essence, social justice is concerned with equal justice, not just in the courts, but in all aspects of society.” So my understanding of social justice is that it is a concept which is viewed to mean that every person has the same rights and should be treated fairly against everybody else.
For an interesting article on a research project that Dr Myron Friesen conducted to find out what New Zealand’s perception of Social Justice is, go tohttp://www.socialjustice.co.nz/social_justice_excerpt.pdf
Informed Consent
This is a type of protection in the medical scene which protects both health professionals and the patients or clients. Informed consent is a concept in which, WiseGeek (2011) ², states “supports the idea that patients should be fully informed at all stages of medical treatment and medical trials. There are two aspects to informed consent: a conversation with a care provider or researcher, and a form which must be signed to indicate that the conversation has occurred.”
REFERENCE LIST
Schneider, Laura. (2007). Information technology - definition and history. Retrieved from http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/careersintechnology/p/ITDefinition.htm
Weir, D. T. (2011). (DIRECT INTERVIEW)
Intellectual Property Office, (2010). What is intellectual property? Retrieved from: http://www.iponz.govt.nz/cms/what-is-ip/what-is-intellectual-property
WiseGeek, (2011) ¹. What is social justice? Retrieved from: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-social-justice.htm
WiseGeek, (2011) ². What is informed consent? Retrieved from: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-informed-consent.htm
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