Lost touch: Situating human-connectedness in technology-caring in the health sciences

Abstract

The dominant issue of high-tech and high-touch has popularized the supposed dichotomy between technology and caring in health care. In today’s highly technological world, the notion of the “lost touch” in human connectedness is clearly within the realm of human caring. Fostered by different technologies facilitating health care work, the process of caring in the human health experience creates unique individual identities as professional practitioners of human care. The argument is centered on technologies as essential in shaping professionalization by redefining practice boundaries and expanding societal roles and contributions. Consequently, the concept of caring is shared as the hallmark of health care professions. An assertion is made that although technology facilitates caring and competency in the human experience, the idea of human-connectedness can seem “lost”-missing in the discourse and practice within the technological world. Human-connectedness is presented as a concept, positioning its role and relevance in the continued dialogical engagement of technology and caring. A contemporary appreciation of reconciling human connectedness as integral to the process of knowing in a technological world bridging the seemingly paradoxical nature of technology and caring is proposed.