Nursing in the dialysis unit: technological enframing and a declining art, or an imperative for caring

Nursing in haemodialysis units has been well established since the 1960s. Technological developments, open patient selection methods and economic pressures have altered the dialysis unit to become increasingly busy, where demand outstrips availability. For nurses it has become akin to working on a 'production-line' in order to meet the need for treatment. The increasing demand has required the nurse to become technologically skilled often to the detriment of caring. What emerges is the nurse enframed by technology where the caring of nurses is focused through the demand of getting the patients processed. Here is a dilemma where caring becomes a moral imperative in order to overcome the dehumanising effects of technology, and the future of the dialysis nurse comes into question.