From ‘buttons and bells’ to multifaceted solutions

Dave Hewitt, sales and marketing director at Courtney-Thorne, considers the history and development of nurse call technology. He explains how the latest, still fast-developing systems offer numerous features – from wearable monitoring devices to auditing of staff response – designed to meet modern healthcare needs, improve the patient experience, and help staff provide more efficient and more responsive care. He examines the advance of wireless technology, gives the company’s standpoint on the ‘pros and cons’ of ‘wired’ versus ‘wireless’, and discusses how modern nurse call technology can provide a wealth of information in an age when good data is increasingly key.

Throughout my career I’ve often pondered how the conversation should go when asked ‘What does your company do?’, or ‘What are you involved in at work?’ As a child we might have looked at our parents and wondered the same, unless perhaps it was obvious – if they were a policeman, a fireman, or a shopkeeper, as was the case with my father

As my own son grew up I was working for the world’s largest fire and security company, and was able to point to bright yellow alarm boxes on many high street shopfronts, and say: ‘That’s the company daddy works for.’ But what about my specific duties? This was difficult to explain, since I worked in the communications sector, and, worse still, I was in product marketing. Not an easy conversation with a nine-year-old.