How Technology Changed The Face Of Nursing
No workplace has vicious the touch of technology, including nursing. Nursing is still, and will always be, a field where technology has had a huge impact on the way that nurses do their job. While some of the technological advances have made the nurse ' s job easier, others have been implemented as a price saving measure, and still others are used to improve patient safety.
Like those in other industries, nurses are often reluctant of using new technologies. With the desire to remain within the process they are familiar with, nurses are often unwillingly pulled into newer technologies. Parallel most others, once they become recognized with new technology, they get taller to conforming it. One side effect of the new technological advancements in healthcare is the increase in jobs related to the field. Before ultrasounds, there was no need for someone trained to perform them. Respiratory therapy, nuclear medicine and many other branches of healthcare have created new jobs by the advancement of technology.
Improvements in medical care
Advancements in technology have lead to bigger healthcare and patient care. Before the development of electronic IV monitors and IV pump infusions, anyone who confessed an IV had it administered unbefitting the watchful eye of a nurse. Over guidebook IVs were susceptible to stopping or flowing too rapidly, a nurse remained by the patient ' s side every time they patent an IV. When you consider how common IVs are, it is easy to see how much time is saved with the electronic IV observer.
All nurses are recognized with the sphygmomanometer. This is the scientific name for a blood pressure cuff. Having an electronic blood pressure cuff that also records the patient ' s heart beat is typical one of the greatest time saving tools that technology has brought to nursing.
Technologies resembling as ultrasound and sonograms have accustomed the medical community the ability to lamp inside of the human body and see booked babies and cancerous tumors. While a nurse does not perform or scrutinize the ultrasounds and sonograms, their effect has touched the nursing community by allowing more invasive diagnostic procedures to fall by the wayside.
Improvements in information management
As important as nursing care is for the patient, it is only one part of the nurse ' s job. The nurse is in control for maintaining an accurate document on each patient unbefitting her care. While many hospitals progress to use pen and paper charting, technology can make the enter keeping process less heavy. There are computerized programs available for medication dispensing, hospital tenure and insurance and payment programs. Patient records can be maintained in a computerized database which allows the physician, nurse or other medical know stuff to pull up the patient ' s medical history in seconds. Portable computing equipment allows the nurse to renew the information on the fly, fairly than at the end of each shift. Internet access allows medical personnel to have instant access to databases to search for symptoms and drug interactions.
Reducing the risk of mistakes
Computerized drug management software reduces the chances of a patient getting the bad drug, or being prone two drugs that should not be habituated together. Portable defibrillators only work when they are needed and properly proper. Many of the improvements in technology are aimed at reducing the risk of errors and mistakes that can lead to injury or death. This not only makes the hospital a safer neighborhood for patients, but helps ease the stress nurses and other medical professionals are unbefitting.
Technology and the nurse
As the nursing field becomes more specialized, the need for nurses that are affluent with new technology will only increase. While many of the therapies for disease involve drugs, a growing number entail medical devices. Technology is focused on the healthcare industry right now for a variety of reasons. Immature drug interactions of approved drugs have made more healthcare development firms squint at device development as a safer and less litigious area of development.
The growing needs for medical care and the shortage of healthcare workers also drive the development of new technology. Innovations that make it possible for a nurse to perform duties more efficiently, or concede them to hand over duties to an aide or administrative personnel increases efficiency and increase the number of patients that can be cared for with the twin number of nurses.
The desire to reduce mistakes that can originate harm to the patient also drive the development of technology. Devices that have built in safeguards that prevent misuse are one example of this technology. In many highly computerized hospitals, a patient cannot be dispensed the discreditable medicine, due to the computer checks current medications the patient is currently taking, and the patient ' s diagnosis, before allowing the medication to be removed from the pharmacy. If the doctor wants the medicine, he must manually override the system.
While oblivion can totally remove the pressure of working as a nurse, many gifted solutions have made the job much more possible. While the learning curve is often steep, the savings in time and worry are your compensation.
