Technology And The Healthcare Field

Nursing informatics and technology are quickly becoming the hot buzz words for nursing in the twenty-first century. While performing research for this specific paper, the observations of how far technology has come from its inception is mind boggling. When looking back to the mid 1990’s every patient had paper charting. Nurses manually charted vital signs, nursing notes, treatments and all orders were manually written in the chart. The patient’s name, insurance information, and billing items were stored electronically. Fast forward twenty plus years and everything nurses do with, for or to a patient is filed electronically. This file today is known as the electronic health record (EHR) (Lavin, Harper, & Barr, 2015). This paper will be delving into the history of nursing informatics and technology, the pros and cons for nurses and what will be the big picture for informatics and technology in nursing today and in the future. Nursing informatics and the technology that has evolved over time are changing and quickly affecting how nurses treat, communicate, plan and document everything that they do for their patients.

Medical technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor, and treat diseases or medical conditions that affect humans. This may included but not limited too, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and medical equipment. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and reductions in hospital stays and rehabilitation times. Recent advances in medical technology have also focused on cost reduction. Medical technology may include medical devices, information technology, biotech, and healthcare services. The impacts of medical technology may involve social and ethical issues. For example physicians may seek objective information from technology rather than listening to subjective patient reports. A major contributor of healthcare expenditure in America is the advancement of medical technology. According to several studies it is shown that there is a correlation between the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and money allocated to healthcare. One of the leading theories is that medical technology is growing faster than expected.

Nursing is a field that demands for an individual is willing to go beyond professional boundaries when necessary. In the present age, the nursing profession needs to compete to develop themselves and the profession to be able to gain respect and higher level of standard for the profession. Responsibility and role of nursing professionals becoming highly challenging and more refined because of the global health care is evolved rapidly thus nursing professionals have to be more accountable and indirectly involved in the process of decision making ( Holder and Schenthal 2007 ). Therefore it is very important for nurses nowadays to continue to learn in the latest health care knowledge and technology. Holder and Schenthal (2007) also described

The use of technology is a major part of the growing world. In many ways the advancing technology has become useful to me in my practice. It has allowed me access to a universal patient record, prevented me from medication errors that could have been harmful to the patient, and helped to improve communication among my team members. However, one of the biggest lessons I will take with me, is to never forget basic nursing skills. I have encountered many system and device failures and had to compensate on my own. The use of technology should not ever replace verbal communication, or basic nursing skills that have been taught in school. A culture of technology dependence in healthcare is frightful, and could have severe outcomes for the patients.

A nursing technology revolution is around the corner. In recent years several advances have been made towards the implementation of various programs that help hospitals move more efficiently from ordering tests to admitting the patient into the hospitals proprietary system. In larger hospitals computers have been installed at nursing workstation so that nurses can chart information, view trending, and print lab reports. This is a long way from where nursing was 15 years ago.

In order to qualify current medical situation, aging population and the lack of primary care providers, nurses should enhance their education, strengthen their nursing skills, improve communication skills, own critical thinking for tomorrow. In addition, technological advancement is also used in nursing. Nurses should prepare their education from passive to active learning, engage in learning how to learn, know how to use data and electronic systems and participate on line education for tomorrow (Allen, 2013).

Theoretical perspectives on the use of new technology in nursing. The interaction between nurses and new IT and digitally controlled clinical technology has been theorized from several perspectives.

In response to the 1998 article ?Technology and True Presence in Nursing? published in the Holistic Nursing Practice journal, I agree with the author that technology focuses mainly on the dependent and interdependent aspects of nursing. These roles depend heavily on the scientific medical data about a patient, which is communicated to the nurse through a physician and/or other medical professionals. This often includes ordering required testing, gathering clinical information, and diagnosing the patient. The independent role of the nurse is thus supported through technological advances by allowing the nurse to remain patient focused: spending time with that patient, establishing the important roles of communicator, educator and patient advocate while making independent decisions for that patient.

In regards to the society, both the nurse and the patient will form a relationship based on their on context of values and beliefs within that society. Some specific things that will be discussed throughout this issues essay will be how technology has influenced the nursing profession within a particular society. Other issues that will be discussed in regard nursing profession include things such as technology, facing the faculty shortage, education and delivery method, safety and quality, evidence based practice, social media and how to balance a nurse’s career. Throughout this essay one will explain how each of these issues plays a major role in various changes going on throughout our society.

Nursing today is very advance, we relied a lot more on technology to deliver care. Nurses are more involve in decision making in different level of care. Nursing are able to take better care of their patient with the collaboration of other disciplines, such as Doctors, Therapist, Social Workers and other members

Technology has impacted my nursing profession. As a new generation nurse, technology used in healthcare comes easy to me compared to older generation nurses. I have encountered older generation nurses who have a hard time to use things online and are sometimes stubborn to learn about these advance technology forming in healthcare. I have utilized my email to communicate with my manager and my coworkers. We also use technology such as e-learnings, which are modules online to help us learn about new things to improve our nursing skills. Our hospital also utilizes “text page”, which we notify the doctor about information concerning about our patients. As Piscotty, Kalisch and Gracey-Thomas (2015) explain “Reducing the occurrence of missed nursing

Orem describes how the patients self care needs will be meet by the nurse, patient, or both in her theory of nursing systems. “The design and elements of a nursing system defines the scope of nursing responsibility in health care situations, defines general and specific roles of nurses and patients, and defines reasons for nurses’ relationship with patients” (Current Nursing, 2010, para. 17). Orem recognized that members of the health profession usually develop specialized technologies. “A technology is systematized information about a process or a method for

Technology and innovation have transformed the way people function personally and professionally. In the past, writing and mailing a letter was standard but now most people send electronic messages and text messages to phones. Healthcare has been changing tremendously as well, not only are paper charts and records becoming obsolete, but now many facilities are sharing test results, visit information details, and prescribed drug lists. This move into the digital age has helped improve healthcare by cutting costs in the long-term, increasing efficiency with decreased wait times, and reducing medical errors. This evolving technology expansion, commonly referred to as nursing informatics has created many

As technology has and continues to advance so will the expansion of nursing informatics. Data from (19th annual 2008 himss leadership survey, 2008) hold this statement true showing a steady increase in the implementation of technologies. As computers became smaller, it became easier and efficient for hospitals and physicians office to implement their use. (sutton, 2007)The first computers were large, expensive, and inefficient. Now, computers are compact, inexpensive, and efficient. The smaller technology allows for portability of information. PDA’s are small enough to fit in your pocket. With these small devices, you can look up a patients medication, drug interactions, side effects, and just about anything, you could think of to

Upon considering the past and future of nursing, many changes have already taken place, and even larger changes are expected. With the recent rate of technological development, the heath care system is certain to follow in its advances at nearly the same pace. Many predictions for the future of medicine are based on computerized technology. The use of telemonitoring, video and “smart houses” are already being used by some companies today, and will be utilized more frequently in the future. This will enable one nurse to care for many more patients than he/she is capable of safely caring for currently. This is very important due to the baby-boomer generation growing older and the