Navigating the Educational Gap: Advancements in Medical Technology and the Critical Care Nursing Challenge

Introduction

Critical care nursing faces an education gap due to the advancing technology in ICU and medical science in general. A high rate of technological advancement characterizes the 21st century to improve the quality of living. The pace with which medical technology is advancing is faster. It requires the critical care nurse to be highly trained on technology matters to deliver the best quality of care for critically ill patients. Medical Technology in the 20th century was available. Still, in the 21st century, advanced technology is more complicated in critical care units, which requires the nurses to have a deeper understanding of the machines' functionality as opposed to just operating. Nurses lack knowledge of modern technology to help deliver high-quality care to the ability of critical care technology. Nurse education for ICU nurses teaches the nurses about the available technology, but the technology advancement rate is faster, making some of the knowledge in the 20th century obsolete.

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The Educational Gap

Obsolete 20th-century technology

The technology used in nursing education in the 20th century is no longer useful in the 21st century. The rate of technological advancement in the critical care specialization is so fast that it makes the 20th century obsolete, thus creating an education gap. Nursing schools are reluctant to invest in modern nursing machines to adequately prepare nurses to handle the future with advanced medical technology in critical care (Pittman, 2019, pp. 15). Older nurses find it challenging to operate the new, more advanced essential care equipment. Nursing schools cannot offer regular technology training related to nursing education and modern advanced technology. Education materials in nursing school are not advancing at the same rate as a medical technology in critical care.

Lack of Techniques to deal with abrupt information

Modern Technology keeps changing. Nurses cannot deal with new technical information and deliver high-quality care, which is an education gap. Teaching the techniques of appreciating new technology with further details will help the critical care nurses have a standardized way of dealing with new technological information for crucial standardized care (DillardWright, 2019, pp. 12239). The gap results in every nurse handling further technical details that comes with advanced machines in their ways, thus lacking the standard of care. Abrupt new specialized knowledge can be overwhelming and may require already taught skills to handle such information to ensure a high nursing care level in critical care units (Pittman, 2019, pp. 15).

Lack of ability to Manage Large data volumes

Modern medical technology in critical care units comes with more sophisticated information and large volumes of data. Some urgent care unit nurses on duty find it challenging to analyze the large data volumes provided by the modern medical equipment in critical care units, which keeps advancing and regularly changing (DillardWright, 2019, pp. 12239). The 20th-century nursing education did not prepare the nurses for handling large volumes of data from sophisticated medical equipment in critical care units.

Impact of the Educational Gap

Reduced Quality of Care

Failure to understand the impact of the new advanced technology on the patient in the critical care unit leads to reduced care quality. The machine's effective operation is needed for quality care of the patient in critical condition, and a slight mistake could lead to the death of the patient (Crilly et al., 2019, pp.4250). Quality of care in the critical care units is dependent t on the skill level of the specialized nurse. Lower skill levels in the operation of the medical equipment lead to reduced quality of care. Nursing schools do not teach the needed skills as the technology turnover is high; thus, the education gap leads to reduced care quality (Pittman, 2019, pp. 15).

Delayed Healthcare Delivery

Inability to operate sophisticated technology due to the gap in nurse technological education leads to delayed care. The nurses wait for the most skilled among them to handle the equipment. The education gap results in an individualized will to keep learning or not. Few qualified nurses to operate the modern equipment leads to delayed delivery of care since they may not be available when needed (Pittman, 2019, pp. 15). The education gap for the critical care unit nurses on advanced nursing technology affects the overall essential delivery of care.

Shortage of Health Professional

The high turnover of technology leads to a shortage of critical care nurses who can handle the ICU equipment. The educational gap in nurses' training for the essential care specialization inadequately prepares the nurse to deal with the new advanced machine with skilled operational requirements to deliver quality care. Most nurses in the critical care unit do not want to deal with the latest devices (Leary and Punshon, 2019, pp.25654). Older nurses unable to deal with modern technology in the critical care units opt to handle patients in other departments instead of ICU with regularly advancing technology. For example, the number of skilled intensive care unit nurses with an up-to-date understanding of the ICU equipment is still lower and becomes even scarce with advancing Technology (Khan et al., 2019, pp. 27).

Target Audience for the Education Tool

The education tool's Target audience is the administrators and regulators of nursing education, nursing in institutions educators, and the specialized care nurses and nursing students interested in specialized care. They are the direct beneficiaries of modern technology if the educational gap is addressed. They need advanced skills and the know-how to cope with merging technical information to benefit the career progression and quality care delivery. Updated education tools to adapt to the current trends helps create a team of motivated specialized care nurses with the right skills and ready to adapt to new technology.

Nursing school regulators and administrators need to understand the importance of investing in new ways to teach advanced technology nursing and prepare students to adapt to future technology. Merging nursing studies with technology will also help nursing educators understand the technological evolution and train specialized care nurses.

Details of the proposed Education Tool

Nursing education tool that encourages technology and critical thinking in specialized care set up should be adopted. Nurses should have modern equipment in their classes and be taught using them as each learns the operational skills (Crilly et al., 2019; pp. 4250). The foundation of effective specialized care, especially in intensive care units, is the nurses' ability to use modern equipment to provide supportive care. Using modern teaching equipment will help the nurses understand the technological advancement in specialized care, which prepares them for the fast-evolving Technology (Crilly et al., 2019, pp.4250).

Nursing books in specialized care should be updated to include modern-day equipment and medical technology trends instead of 20th-century books with limited technology equipment. Technology limits the traditional way of lecturing and focusing on more evidence-based teaching, which is practical. Nursing education for specialized care needs continuous modification of the curriculum to adapt to the ever-changing technology. Nurses working in modern hospitals today understand the tremendous and consistent evolution of medical Technology (Yaeger et al., 2019, pp. 195). It is the same massive and constant evolution that nursing education needs to teach students about the medical technologies, their benefits in saving lives, and the skills required by the specialized nurses to be ready for the evolving Technology (Catalano, 2019, Pp. 32).

Qualitative research methodology helps the curriculum formulators integrate information in clinical practice and theoretical knowledge. The students' insight will support the education curriculum formulators evolve with the technology to incorporate new technological lead in the student learning experience. It will help prepare nurses with relevant and up-to-date technical skills to operate modern specialized unit machines (Yaeger et al., 2019, pp. 194).

The education tool encourages the adoption of nursing pedagogies that encourage learning from multiple learning experiences. Such pedagogies are expensive, but they prepare nurses to be skilled enough to handle new information in a standardized manner. Nursing educators using the pedagogies understand that specialized medical technology keeps changing rapidly and organizes the technical nursing students to be ready for such technological evolution (Nelson et al., 2019, pp.15). It takes time and energy from the nursing educators and students. Still, it is more effective in the 21st century, where multiple sources of information will help the nurses gain a better understanding of medical Technology (Crilly et al., 2019, pp.4250). The evolving environment of specialized care nursing requires students to learn new information for improved quality of care. Technology teaching should have at least 10 hours of lectures for critical care nurses.

Faculty members should be well trained and involve medical technology experts in the education curriculum to help expound technology's functioning within the nursing profession. Technology experts will help predict technology's future in the nursing profession and prepare the students in technology that will experience a high growth rate in medicine. Modern medical technology in specialized care nursing has led to technical experts' inadequacy to help the nursing students understand the functioning of the lifesaving machine expected to help the nurse deliver quality care. The trainers in nursing schools should be competent enough to understand technology's function in nursing and teach others (Catalano, 2019, Pp. 32). Adoption of the proposed education tools will help prepare specialized care nurses.

Reference

Catalano, J.T., 2019. Nursing Now: Today's Issues, Tomorrows Trends. FA Davis.

Crilly, G., Dowling, M., Delaunois, I., Flavin, M., and Biesty, L., 2019. Critical care nurses' experiences of providing care for adults in a highly technological environment: A qualitative evidence synthesis. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(23-24), pp.4250-4263.

DillardWright, J., 2019. Electronic health record as a panopticon: A disciplinary apparatus in nursing practice. Nursing Philosophy, 20(2), p.e12239.

Khan, N., Jackson, D., Stayt, L., and Walthall, H., 2019. Factors influencing nurses' intentions to leave adult critical care settings. Nursing in urgent care, 24(1), pp.24-32.

Leary, A., and Punshon, G., 2019. Determining acute nurse staffing: a hermeneutic review of evolving science. BMJ Open, 9(3), p.e025654.

Nelson, D.H., Prescott, S.L., Logan, A.C. and Bland, J.S., 2019. Clinical ecology—transforming 21st-century medicine with planetary health in mind. Challenges, 10(1), p.15.

Pittman, P., 2019. Activating nursing to address unmet needs in the 21st century.

Yaeger, K.A., Martini, M., Yaniv, G., Oermann, E.K. and Costa, A.B., 2019. United States regulatory approval of medical devices and software applications enhanced by artificial intelligence. Health Policy and Technology, 8(2), pp.192-197.