Technological competency as caring in nursing is the harmonious coexistence between technologies and caring in nursing. The harmonization of these concepts places the practice of nursing within the context of modern healthcare and acknowledges that these concepts can co-exist. (Miller, 2007) Dr. Locsin’s theory on technological competency as an expression of caring is grounded in his interests, the influences of personalities and other theorists including Nursing as Caring theory of Boykin and Schoenhofer. The preservation of humanness in the advanced healthcare setting is by the application of the nurses’ ability to utilize scientific knowledge to know and care for the patient. The theory is built upon major concepts of technological competency, nursing as knowing, person as caring and calls and responses to nursing.

 

Concepts are congruent with components of the nursing metaparadigm as described below:

• The person or human being is unpredictive that can be only understand from moment to moment.

• Health develops and progresses from moment to moment.

• Nursing on the other hand is a process embedded in the concepts of caring and intentionality.

• The environment is generally referred to as the human beings’ physical surroundings.

 

Through its theoretical lens, technology is viewed as means to know persons moment to moment as caring, dynamic, and unpredictable individuals and not just to deliver care. When technology is used to know persons continuously in the moment, the process of nursing is lived. The nurse enters the world of the other. In this process, technology is used to magnify the aspect of the person that requires revealing a representation of the real person. This process of knowing persons is guided by the following theoretical assumptions:

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1. Persons are caring by virtue of their humanness. 

2. Persons are whole or complete in the moment.

3. Knowing persons is a multidimensional process.

4. Technologies of health and nursing are elements of caring.

5. Nursing is a discipline and a professional practice. 

 

Applications of the theory in different aspects of the nursing profession are influenced by how technology will evolve in the arena of healthcare and the ever-dynamic role of the nurse in knowing persons throughout this evolution. Futuristically speaking, Locsin (2017) stated that the ultimate expression of machine technologies in nursing turns out to be autonomous robots (ARs) with future potentials of functions comparable to human persons.