NURS 3001 Application Week 5 Legal Ethics-Overtime – Walden

​I can’t believe this class is already over and how much we have learned! Looking back on when I first started, I had hoped to learn and understand statistics and how to apply it to my everyday life. I remember reading the first chapters and how different polls are taken and the margin of error, and how that affects the polls. I found this to be especially interesting …

Patient Safety Measures

NURS 3100 Week 6, Issues and Trends

Patient Safety Measures

There are many quality control indicators that are in place to ensure patient safety, and overall better outcome, when they are admitted into the hospital. These quality indicators are a preventative measure for our patients when in our care.  One quality indicator that is very important in the hospital setting, is patient safety measures.  The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader about why we have quality indicators for patient safety measures, and how it became important.

NURS 3001 – Issues and Trends in Nursing Case Study Paper

In any healthcare profession, advances in technology, changes in patient population, and current events can have an impact on the job and on patient outcomes. Nurses are often on the front lines of these types of shifts, so it is always worth considering the pervasive healthcare trends that are both internal and external to patients and service providers. Take a look at these ten nursing trends to get a clear picture of where nursing is headed in 2015.

1. A Shift in DemographicsIt should come as no surprise to any nurse that the U.S. population is aging. In fact, by 2020 more than 20% of the population in this country will be over the age of 65 and adults over the age of 85 are the fastest growing age group overall. As people age, they have a greater need for healthcare. For nurses, this means not only familiarizing themselves with the diagnoses and issues that affect older adults at a greater rate, but also learning how best to communicate with older adults and their families about care plans, preventative healthcare, and healthy aging. NURS 3001 – Issues and Trends in Nursing Case Study Paper
2. Preventative CareSpeaking of preventative care, it is another focal point for the future of healthcare.
   Patients as well as health insurance providers and increasingly interested in engaging in preventative measures to live a sustainably healthy life and work to prevent future issues. For nurses, this means an increased demand for services in this area, as well as more interfacing with other healthcare professionals, such as nutritionists, physical therapists, and other professionals that work in careers ancillary to direct care but effective in preventative health.
3. Consumer Education By now, most nurses have likely experienced the impact of increased consumer education. Now more than ever patients are going to their appointments armed with lots of information about the symptoms, conditions, and possible treatments. This information can come from a variety of sources, ranging from the internet to television commercials. While having educated healthcare consumers can certainly be helpful in many ways, the burden also falls to nurses to be able to sort that information into valuable and specious.
4. Increased Insurance Access With the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), millions more Americans have access to health insurance. For working nurses and those studying to enter the field, this means tremendous continuing opportunity. It also means addressing the healthcare challenges that may face individuals who have lived without health insurance for many years and are finally able to bring their concerns to healthcare professionals.
5. Continued Growth in Technology Increased access to technology has been among the most important nursing trends for many years running, but it continues to be an important aspect of the job. In 2015, nurses can expect to see a continued reliance on portable and mobile technology as well as an emphasis on medicine, particularly in rural and under served areas. Nurses will need to be comfortable with constantly changing technologies so that they can choose the best care options for their patients, and also be able to intelligently interface with medical technologists.
6. Health Information Privacy One of the ways in which technology affects patients and nurses alike is the advent of electronic health records. Those hospitals and physician’s offices that have not yet switched to this type of medical record are surely on their way to doing so. While electronic health records can make patient data easier to share and can improve outcomes, it also put private information at risk for theft. This means nurses will have to stay vigilant themselves and with staff training in 2015 to ensure that electronic patient data is safe and secure.
7. Access to Nursing Education Online nursing education is certainly not new in 2015, but we can expect to see more programs offering increased flexibility in order to provide even better access to advanced nursing education. A continued nursing shortage, that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics will mean a need for more than a million new nurses by 2022, is fueling this interest in expanded educational offerings (BLS, 2012). Online nursing training programs will make it easier for working nurses to further their careers, taking RNs to Nurse Practitioners without having to sacrifice their current careers.
8. Fluctuations in Retirement Age for Nurses In addition to new educational opportunities, the nursing shortage is likely to mean that more nurses continue to work past the retirement age in 2015. This could mean that older, more experienced nurses are able to take on managerial roles and also provide hands-on training to those new to the profession. However, it may also mean that new nurses have more trouble finding a career foothold at some institutions where nurses have been unable or unwilling to retire.
9. A Return to Community Nursing The nursing profession originated in the community. Nurses (and physicians as well) would visit patients in their homes and interact with the community at large. However, as healthcare become more facility-focused, more nurses became tied to a single institution and started to treat patients only in hospitals or offices. In 2015 and beyond, some believe that there will be a shift back towards more community-based nursing, with nurses returning to community clinics and even home-based services.
10. Collaborative Nursing Though we have touched on this topic earlier on, it is worth reiterating. As more people in the U.S. have access to healthcare and advances mean more machinery, software, and other specialty technologies that require specific training to use effectively, nurses will increasingly collaborate with nursing colleagues as well as non-nurse specialists on a regular basis. Further, nurses should expect to provide more collaborative care with such specialists as dentists, social workers, mental health professionals, and pharmacists in 2015 and beyond.

The Latest Trends and Technology in Nursing 2018

Patient Engagement.  As with most industry trends, nurses are on the front lines of patient engagement efforts.  If you haven’t already been exposed to the concept, patient engagement is the practice of a patient taking more responsibility for their own health and well-being. When providers and patients work together, health outcomes are improved.  New technologies are being developed to support patient engagement, and nurses are finding themselves more involved in helping evolve engagement efforts for their patients.

Precision Medicine.  Another newer concept that will ultimately involve nurses providing direct care to patients, Precision Medicine, refers to the advancement of medical research that targets how certain diseases impact people differently based on their genetic makeup. It may include different treatments for certain types of cancers based on the genetics of the tumor. Precision medicine is an acknowledgment that healthcare is never one-size-fits-all and treatments are being adapted to the individual rather than the disease.

Centralized Command Centers.  Inspired by NASA, many hospitals are implementing command centers that serve as a “mission control” for all of the services and functions related to patient care.  Today’s nurses are finding themselves able to interact with a second set of eyes and also have help in managing daily bottlenecks. These command centers are also being utilized for central monitoring of patients to overcome alarm fatigue from the 90% of hospital alarms that aren’t actionable.  The centers utilize complex algorithms and analytics to assist nurses in making real-time decisions to improve quality of care and reduce costs.

Smarter Smartphones?  All of us are already using our smartphones for just about everything we track, post, and read lately, so nurses using them for their work is not surprising.  One example of ways that nurses are able to use their smartphone is called Steth IO, which turns your phone into a modernized stethoscope. A special case is attached to your iPhone (not yet available for Android) and channels the sounds of a patient’s heart and breathing into the microphone.  The Steth IO app then digitizes the heartbeat into a graph on the phone screen to record and enable easier detection of abnormal heart sounds.

Overcoming Language Barriers.  As our nation’s population becomes more diverse, nurses are finding themselves in more frequent situations where patients speak a language other than English.  This often leads to another nurse who speaks the language being brought in to translate.  By September of this year, a hand-held, two-way voice translator, The Pocket, will be available to translate up to 63 languages in real time. Working via Wi-Fi, mobile data, or a personal hotpot, the translator transfers speech to text on the screen and relays responses verbally.  Nurses will also be able to save up to 20 exchanges to assist with post-visit notes and charting.

Nursing Trends to Watch

Nursing is always changing—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. It’s helpful to step back once in a while and look at of some of the biggest developments in the field to know what’s ahead so you can be prepared to face new challenges and continue to thrive in your nursing career.

More Outpatient Care

Outpatient care is in demand due to a number of factors, including pressure to keep down costs and more effective technologies and treatments that have eliminated the need for overnight hospital stays. Financial constraints, such as high insurance deductibles, have also caused many patients to put off elective procedures. However, these patients often still require extensive medical attention, hence the need for more outpatient facilities and care. Nurses will also find opportunities in outpatient settings such as ambulatory care clinics, rehabilitation centers, and clinics attached to assisted-living facilities, and even health providers.