When I was born in the early 1970s, the television had two channels, but no remote control. As far as I know, there was no talk of digitization at the time. The first steps of digitization were taken in the 1980s, when computers started appearing in people’s homes. The development of digitization has been fast and wild. It will continue to accelerate.

Digital services are being developed all the time and they increase the possibility for people to monitor and maintain their own health, well-being and functional ability. These are contributing to reducing the work of healthcare professionals and increasing opportunities to meet clients in need of help in person. These digital tools should be easy to use. They must be able to be used regardless of location. Training and guidance are also needed so that people learn to utilize and benefit from the services brought by digitalization.

Like it or not, digitization will be used more and more in the future, because there is a shortage of labor and money. For example, virtual visits have been used in home care for a long time, where the nurse is in contact with the patient via a computer/tablet. This has significantly reduced the need to visit people physically, especially when there is a shortage of labor. Almost all procedures or follow-ups do not require the nurse to visit the patient physically.

In the future, robots may participate in the daily care of patients more and more. In healthcare, robots are already being used in various demanding technical operations. Robots may soon be a standard resource in nursing homes. In the future, it may be possible for a patient to talk to a robot when contacting healthcare. A robot can make an assessment of the need for treatment better than a human, because its amount of information is significantly greater than that of a human. It can quickly review treatment recommendations and related research information.

In healthcare, data protection is very important, as treatment relationships are confidential and sensitive information is handled in them. In my own work, the data protection regulation in itself did not bring anything new, but patient data is sensitive information that must be handled with care. The GDPR ensures that you have the right to access your own data, request the correction of incorrect data and receive information about how your personal data is processed. The risks of digitalization are related to the fact that not everyone can participate in them, but are therefore excluded from various services. There has also been talk about whether digitalization will take away people’s jobs? Sure, it can be creating a new kind of work. If too much information is collected about people, then privacy suffers and is threatened.

I asked ChatGPT e.g. can schizophrenia be cured? In my opinion, the artificial intelligence answered correctly and directed me to contact a professional to get more detailed information about the individual situation. The AI replied to me that it would answer questions to the best of its ability and provide information based on training and available knowledge. Not all answers are error-free or up-to-date. It is recommended to always check critical issues from reliable sources or consult professionals in special cases. In the stories of artificial intelligence there are mistakes, old truths or, at worst, machine hallucinations.

Self evaluation

It is important to be open to new digital things and not be afraid of them. Digitization must be an assistant, not a master. Digitization has both good and bad sides. We must learn to better understand the possibilities of digitization, but also its risks and threats. ChatGPT brought me the most new information. I’ve tried it a little before, but now I got to know it better. Artificial intelligence can be used to your advantage to figure out everyday things, but also as an aid to studying. You have to take into account that you check the correctness of the information and the sources, if ChatGPT helps you with your studies.

Blogs I commented:

blogi.savonia.fi/annemarjaana/digi-society

blogi.savonia.fi/kaisamarikoponen/digi-society/

I myself work in psychiatry as a nurse, so I paid attention to the use of virtual glasses in psychiatric nursing. I briefly familiarized myself with the topic and there is research information that music and various visual elements, such as nature pictures, can have a calming effect on the mind and body.