Abstract
Neurosciences and neurotechnologies (from now on called neuro-advancements) constantly evolve and influence all facets of society. Neuroethics and neuro-governance discourses focus on the impact of neuro-advancements on individuals and society, and stakeholder involvement is identified as an important aspect of being able to deal with such an impact. Nurses engage with neuro-advancements within their occupation, including neuro-linked assistive technologies, such as brain-computer interfaces, cochlear implants, and virtual reality. The role of nurses is multifaceted and includes being providers of clinical and other health services, educators, advocates for their field and their clients, including disabled people, researchers, and influencers of policy discourses. Nurses have a stake in how neuro-advancements are governed, therefore, being influencers of neuroethics and neuro-governance discourses should be one of these roles. Lifelong learning and professional development could be one mechanism to increase the knowledge of nurses about ethical, social, and legal issues linked to neuro-advancements, which in turn, would allow nurses to provide meaningful input towards neuro-advancement discussions. Disabled people are often the recipients of neuro-advancements and are clients of nurses, therefore, they have a stake in the way nurses interact with neuro-advancements and influence the sociotechnical context of neuro-advancements, which include neuro-linked assistive devices. We performed a scoping review to investigate the role of narrative around nurses in relation to neuro-advancements within academic literature and newspapers. We found minimal engagement with the role of nurses outside of clinical services. No article raised the issue of nurses having to be involved in neuro-ethics and neuro-governance discussions or how lifelong learning could be used to gain that competency. Few articles used the term assistive technology or assistive device and no article covered the engagement of nurses with disabled people within a socio-technical context. We submit that the role narrative falls short of what is expected from nurses and shows shortcomings at the intersection of nurses, socio-technical approaches to neuro-assistive technologies and other neuro-advancements and people with disabilities. Neuro-governance and neuroethic discourses could be a useful way for nurses and disabled people to co-shape the socio-technical context of neuro-advancements, including neuro-assistive technologies. Lifelong learning initiatives should be put in place to provide the knowledge necessary for nurses to take part in the neuroethics and neuro-governance discussion.
Highlights
Neuroscientific and neurotechnological advancements have a long history and continue to develop and grow [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
The result section was divided into seven parts: Part One provides the summary of the results from our search strategy that led to the identification of newspaper articles and academic abstracts to be downloaded for content analysis; Part Two provides hit count for the presence of the 70 neuro-advancement terms (Table 1) in the downloaded academic abstracts; Part Three covers the latent coding results on the role of nurses; Part Four covers content related to ethics content and the involvement of nurses in neuroethics and neuro-governance discourses; Part Five covers lifelong learning; Part Six covers how disabled people are mentioned; Part Seven deals with the terms “assistive techolog*” and “assistive device*”
Our findings indicate that the role narrative of nurses in relation to neuroadvancements were mostly focused on clinical practice, that the role of influencer of neuroethics and neuro-governance discourses was missing, and that lifelong learning did not engage with how to increase the knowledge of nurses on neuroethics and neuro-governance issues to allow them to take part in neuro-related discussions
Summary
Neuroscientific and neurotechnological advancements ( on called neuro-advancements) have a long history and continue to develop and grow [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. The study of how the nervous system develops, its structure, and what it does” [8] and neurotechnologies are defined for example, “ . As the assembly of methods and instruments that enable a direct connection of technical components with the nervous system” [9], p. 1. Applications of neuro-advancements range from therapeutic to recreational, entertainment, military, human enhancement and education. In response to the broad applicability of neuro-advancements, neuroethics and neuro-governance discourses arose to identify potential ethical, social, and legal issues that neuro-advancements raise. Stakeholder involvement is one focus of neuroethics and neuro-governance discourses
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