With the emergence of the World Wide Web and smart connected devices, technology has successfully infiltrated the world as we know it – and healthcare is definitely no exception. The latest technological devices have helped a multitude of nurses give their patients the best care possible with faster diagnosis, more precise treatments, and more hands-on patient care. Technology is changing the way healthcare works for nurses one advance at a time.
There are many ways in which technology affects healthcare delivery, and nurses must routinely adapt and learn new technologies, from electronic health records to genetic testing to biometrics, minimally invasive diagnostic tools, and robotics. Even 3D “bio printers” may make their way into nursing practice. Technology allows former roadblocks in an RNs day to be quick and simple fixes, especially with their large variety of day to day responsibilities. It is critical for nurses to properly use these tech advances to their advantage and to learn them quickly, even though the learning curve can be quite steep and the technologies quite complicated. The good news: Technologies provide better tools for diagnosing, treating, and communicating with patients.
Most nurses accept technology changes with open arms, because with the proper training it can make their job easier and more effective. Often these advances make work more efficient and cuts down the time consuming paperwork and filing and allows them to have time to devote to innovation and patient care. With advances in technology, nurses are no longer weighed down by paperwork, literally or figuratively. Technology unburdens RNs from mundane tasks and frees their time for more — and more effective — direct patient care responsibilities. It improves communication with patients; and it allows RNs to better plan, deliver, document, and evaluate collected data to support evidence-based practice. Ultimately, technological advances help improve patient safety and return nurses’ focus to their No. 1 priority: quality patient care.
Many nurses are becoming involved in the designing, planning, and implementation of technology systems and software since they are an integral part of the process and ultimately end up using the technology. This has led to the rise of nursing informatics as a specialty. In nursing informatics nurses handle the data, data storage, retrieval of information, and much more. They use their experienced knowledge of the field to find the best technology and data systems to be implemented in a certain hospital, clinic, etc. This field is extremely important for experienced nurses to fill because their wisdom and background allows them to have an inside perspective of what technology will work best to improve patient care.
Technology has become an integral part of nurses jobs already and will only continue to grow and to improve the lives of RNs and patients. Nurses are one of the most essential parts of technology implementation in healthcare and without them the process would be much less effective. This piece will be part of a series of blogs taking a more in depth look at specific new technologies in the field of nursing, so make sure to check back to learn more!
Originally posted on 16/3/2016