Essay Sample on Change in Field of Nursing

There have been numerous changes in the nursing profession and the medical sector at large over the years. This has been the case due to the significant socio-economic transformations in the nursing sector and institutions. Increase in population is one of the critical factors that has contributed to these changes, causing the health sector across the globe to look for alternatives to address related issues (Wamba & Ngai, 2012). Nurses experience these variations at different levels and degrees as well as from a wide range of sources such as governmental, departmental personal and institutional levels. Changes are relevant in ensuring the dissemination of nurse training sessions and delivery of services to the patients is sufficient. One rampant change is technological exploration, which has significantly influenced the mode of nursing service delivery (Wamba & Ngai, 2012). The main aim of this essay is discussing technological changes in the nursing sector.

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One of the technological changes in nursing includes the development of real-time location systems, which is meant for enhancing commodity and asset management. The suitable supply and placement of equipment in hospitals play a critical role in realizing efficiency. It increases the standard of patient treatment and influences the response in treatment during emergency conditions (Hopkins, 2015). Therefore, equipment management is often considered a significant factor that should not be assumed in hospitals. This technology was developed after it was realized that nurses were spending a lot of time in locating equipment when treating patients. It was also observed that response to emergencies was not effective due to the same. Misplacement of commodities increased theft and misuse of medical equipment, and this increased the cost of repairing or replacement of this equipment by nursing departments (Voshall Piscotty Lawrence & Targosz, 2013).

These issues necessitated the introduction of code or chip attached to medical equipment by using indoor positioning systems which can locate these items quickly. This technology mainly uses Wi-Fi and radio frequency identification as a mode of operation. Real-time location technology can also be used patients who are suffering from dementia or mental illness by fixing a bandage or a wristband with them embedded with real-time location technology (Voshall et al., 2013). The electronic boundary can be set for alarming purposes to control them from potentially injuring others or themselves or prevent them from wandering off. This technology can also be incorporated into wireless communication systems for nurses to stimulate an emergency call button in case their physical safety is endangered (Baek Koo Kim Hong Kim Yoo & Shin, 2016).

Real-time location technology has numerous positive effects in the nursing sector. It has been used in assessing the leadership performance within the hospital environment through monitoring staff in a busy environment to establish the bottlenecks in work progress and assessing employee performance. The technology has also been used in estimating the time used by nurses when delivering certain medical services to patients (Baek et al., 2016). The Declining number of nurses have been connected to insufficient staffing practices and increasing concerns concerning the available time for bedside nurses to finish critical care activities. Shortage of time among bedside nurses lead to ignorance of nursing care duties and is linked with the negative nurse and patient outcomes. This technology has assisted in alleviating these issues by developing a system for estimating the specific time that nurses are supposed to use in delivering certain medical services (Hopkins, 2015).

Real-time technology has also resulted in the enhancement of workflow efficiency, especially in treating non-emergency casualties by locating them using this technology. Besides, it has led to the improvement in responding to emergency cases since the equipment is easily accessed (Baek et al., 2016). The cost of repairing and replacing medical equipment has decreased tremendously enhancing the stability of nursing departments. The technology has been widely used inadequately managing medical equipment, which has minimized the time needed to shift nurses and service delivery to patients. This has generally improved the quality of care services and patient satisfaction (Voshall et al., 2013).

Conclusion

In conclusion, there have been numerous changes in the nursing profession and the medical sector at large over the years due to the significant socio-economic transformations in the nursing sector and institutions. Increase in population is one of the critical factors that has contributed to these changes, causing the health sector across the globe to look for alternatives to address associated issues. Real-time location systems are one of the technological changes in nursing. It includes the development of tracking systems which are meant for enhancing commodity and asset management. The suitable supply and placement of equipment in hospitals play a critical role in realizing efficiency. It increases the standards of patient treatment and influences the response in treatment during emergency conditions. The technology was introduced after it was noted realized that nurses were spending a lot of time in locating equipment when treating patients, especially during emergency cases.

References

Baek, M., Koo, B. K., Kim, B. J., Hong, K. R., Kim, J., Yoo, S., ... & Shin, K. (2016). Development and utilization of a patient-oriented outpatient guidance system. Healthcare informatics research, 22(3), 172-177. Retrieved from https://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.4258/hir.2016.22.3.172

Hopkins, C. W. (2015). Measuring leadership rounding performance in a hospital environment using real time location systems. East Carolina University. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/71977415.pdf

Voshall, B., Piscotty, R., Lawrence, J., & Targosz, M. (2013). Barcode medication administration work-arounds: a systematic review and implications for nurse executives. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(10), 530-535. Retrieved from https://journals.lww.com/jonajournal/FullText/2013/10000/Barcode_Medication_Administration_Work_Arounds__A.9.aspx

Wamba, S. F., & Ngai, E. W. (2012, January). Importance of the relative advantage of RFID as enabler of asset management in the healthcare: results from a Delphi study. In 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 2879-2889). IEEE. Retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6149175/