2014 Nursing Trends that will Stick

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The Demographics of Chronic Care

The greatest concern facing the nursing 2014 medical profession is an aging population that will continue to dominate the field of chronic care services for at least the next twenty years. As people grow older, they develop a number of chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes. They acquire nutritional deficiencies, such as an inability to absorb calcium, a lack of Vitamin C or D, hormonal imbalances and cell abnormalcies, resulting in inflammations of the joints or bone diseases such as osteoporosis and Paget’s disease. The chances for mental diseases such as Alzheimer’s begin increasing by age fifty-five. Additionally, chronic diseases among the young are skyrocketing, with a reported 12.5 obese children and an overall record of 72 million obese Americans contributing to the factors of overall poor health.

Advances in Health Education

Will chronic health care be a continuing trend? There is a great deal of debate over what will happen as the baby boomer population begins dying off. Seceding generations are progressively smaller, which means with each new generation, the number of elderly needing chronic health care will decrease. While we are living longer, it’s entirely possible that the elderly of the future will fashion their own health care plans.

Health care education and health care management are among the most likely trends that will stick in the future. Many of the diseases prevalent in society today are preventable with an improvement in health literacy, preventive medicines and diet. Employers are responding to the health care crisis with both free health tools and financial incentives.

The Technical Generation

The nursing 2014 profession is going digital. Not only will our future patients have a number of self-diagnostic tools on hand, nurses will have access to extremely advanced technology, including radiological therapies, nanotechnologies and heart surgery techniques. Computer courses are already becoming a mandatory aspect of nurse training, with electronic transmission of health data and electronic record keeping. With more patients seeking outpatient care, the traditional hospital role will be confined to the more seriously ill and critically injured.

The Trend toward Alternative Medicines

The ongoing trend in nursing 2014 is home care management. Not only are we becoming a more health conscious society, there is an increased acceptance and demand for alternative and complimentary health options. Gene mapping will drive rapid advancements in the development of new drugs and the prevention of diseases. A number of academic medical centers now have offices of alternative medicines and the National Institutes of Health recently funded new initiatives dedicated to this field.

Spanning the Globe

International travel, commerce and the growth of multinational corporations have truly made us one world. Globalization has contributed to both the development of new technologies and therapies, as well as the spread of diseases once confined to demographic areas. The future trend of nurses will be to develop multi-lingual and multi-cultural knowledge bases. Nursing practices, education and research will focus on and respond to the rich diversity in the new ethnic and cultural diversity, with sensitivities to religious convictions, spiritual beliefs, along with the physical and psychosocial health of the population. There will be a greater concentration on practices within rural areas, aided by telecommunicating and digital imaging devices.