Nursing is a fast-paced profession that, alongside technological advancements, has experienced rapid expansion and numerous developments. Nurses today use information technology to deliver a higher level of care to their patients. The progress of information technology has significantly influenced the nursing profession and transformed nurse-patient interactions, treatment delivery, and communication. This article will delve into how nursing has adapted to the advancements in information technology.
Improved Record-Keeping
One of the biggest advancements in information technology is Electronic Health Records (EHRs). EHRs help nurses keep track of their patients’ medical histories and treatment plans. By standardizing healthcare information, EHRs ensure continuity of care and improve efficiency. Nurses can access patient records securely and efficiently across different healthcare settings, significantly improving patient outcomes. Additionally, electronic charting helps nurses document interventions quickly and accurately, making it easier to analyze patients’ progress and make informed decisions about their treatment plans.
Point-Of-Care Devices
Information technology has enabled healthcare providers to share data, store patient data, and retrieve new information, data that helps in making informed decisions regarding patient care. Point-Of-Care (POC) Devices have revolutionized the nursing profession, enabling them to access vital information about a patient’s health, as well as to access point-of-care lab results and medication information. With POC devices, nurses can input patients’ vital signs, and these devices, equipped with EHR software, automatically update patient records. This saves time, simplifies care coordination, and reduces human error.
Telehealth
Nurses can now provide patient care remotely with advancements in telehealth. Telehealth is using technology to provide clinical health care from a distance and can be as simplistic as phone calls or scheduling medical appointments. Nurses can monitor patients via video calling over secure communication channels for a range of patient conditions such as managing chronic illnesses by remotely monitoring patients’ glucose levels, blood pressure, weight, or heart rate. By doing so, nurses can work with patients to make changes to preventive health behaviors without requiring them to visit a healthcare facility. This improves continuity, enhances a patient’s knowledge, and enables quality care to be provided to patients in the comfort of their own homes.
Clinical Decision Support Systems
As technology advances, nurses have seen the addition of new software that has decreased the complexity of making clinical decisions. Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) alert healthcare providers to potentially dangerous situations for the patient while reducing human errors. CDSSs can include information on medication, treatment protocols, and other relevant resources that provide prompt and accurate data when it’s needed most. Nurses find such CDSSs highly beneficial and often use electronic devices that can easily access information such as diagnosis, medication, and trending patient results.
Conclusion
In conclusion, advancements in information technology have transformed the nursing profession by enhancing record-keeping, POC devices, telehealth, and CDSSs. With the adoption of these new technologies, nurses are better equipped to deliver quality care and improve patient outcomes. With the pace that technology is advancing, we can expect more innovations in nursing care that will further fine-tune the level of care, leading to better outcomes and making the nursing profession safer for both nurses and their patients.
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