How does care work in a time when social media is suppressing the desire for personal contact? And where can technology help even in this sensitive area? “Krone” spoke about this with Barbara Lehner on International Women’s Day. The 67-year-old is superior general of the Elizabethan Women’s Order, whose basic mission is nursing the sick.
With a broad smile, Barbara Lehner welcomes the “Krone” to the conversation on the occasion of International Women’s Day. In 1982 she qualified as a nurse, from 1992 she set up a nursing school, and since 2012 she has been superior general of the Elisabethinen Linz-Vienna and thus spiritual head of the Linz hospital of the same name. 31 sisters of the order currently live and work in Linz and six in Vienna. The clergy take on various tasks in the Elisabethinen hospitals, for example in spiritual care, dietology or EKG. Fewer and fewer sisters The women’s order has become steadily smaller in recent years. Not the only change that Barbara Lehner notices: “We have lost the fact that we keep things in our hearts and talk about them with trusted people before we form a judgment. Today you have to post everything immediately,” she says, referring to social media. The new platforms have also reduced personal contact. “Fortunately, no robots yet.” But this is particularly important in nursing, says Lehner: “Patients’ need for human attention has remained. Fortunately, we don’t have any robots in care yet.” But the clergyman emphasizes: “Many technologies are a great blessing” – for example in diagnostics or treatment. And what can society as a whole learn from the Women’s Order of Elizabeth in times of change? “We have a meaningful mission that everyone works on,” says Lehner. “Caring for each other is important in the community; the community provides security.”
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