The Impact of Emerging Technology in Nursing

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While a plethora of different forces are transforming the face of modern day healthcare, a person could dispute that practically nothing will alter the way care giving in contemporary healthcare environment is practiced over the latest developments in technology. Without a doubt, technological innovation is modifying the world at high pace and nowhere is this much more apparent than in health care settings. There is a myriad of emerging technologies that can change the nursing practice and for these, there are also new and different skill sets that nurses will need to improve and acquire in order to use and incorporate these emerging technologies in the health care industry.

Technology in Nursing

The nurses of today are at the heart of health care services. However, nurses commonly devote only about thirty one percent of their time and effort on primary patient care. What about the remaining sixty nine percent? The rest of their time is spent basically on resource allocation, paperwork, information management and communications issues, among others. The time that should be spent on direct care is spent on all the required function that can and should be accomplished, which puts incredible demand on the capabilities and time of these nurses.

Back in the day, about four decades ago, there were no computers or Internet. The closest thing that resembled portable communication was a fax machine. A lot of nurses then found it difficult to have their tasks done right and on time while providing their necessary function as caregivers. This is one of the reasons why various technology and applications had been developed by companies in the health care industry that are more focused on giving their workforce an advantage. While the technology keeps on changing rapidly, it is often hard to keep up. Despite continuous changes in technology, getting tasks done as efficiently as possible remains a problem even today and it is still the issue that affects the personal work habits of nurses.

Technology in Nursing

The utilization of proven technological innovation and related solutions can have a significant effect on individual achievement, overall operations of the healthcare facility and patient care. Reports and researches from different institutions focused on improving the health care system say that emerging technologies such as real-time location solutions, wireless communications and even delivery robots can drastically maximize a nurse’s time with their patients. Fully functional enterprise management applications and other related technology for the nursing industry helped a lot of organizations when it comes to dealing with issues usually associated with work management, customer relationship and supply chain management, manufacturing resource planning and human resource management, among others.

With the emerging technologies focused on the healthcare industry, there is a good chance that nurses today will now be able to dedicate a majority of their time in performing their primary function. As long as it can support any applications typically used on functions like this, it will be worth the time of healthcare facilities to try integrating newer technologies in their facilities.