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The digital age is reshaping the nursing profession

The digital age is reshaping the nursing profession

For anyone contemplating a career in the nursing profession, the digital revolution has reshaped how healthcare is practiced, both in hospital and offsite professional office settings. Are you prepared to take advantage of these changes with the latest in effective training techniques? The demand is high for qualified and highly-trained nursing candidates in every position, from entry-level nursing to nurse practitioners, and the demand will only increase in the future. 

For several decades, technology has changed the workplace in nearly every place imaginable, including within our medical facilities. Paper charts are a thing of the past, replaced by sophisticated Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and digital storehouses of patient data. This software centralizes data storage and provides immediate accessibility to a patient’s medical history, treatment plan, medications, lab test results, diagnostic notes, and a wealth of additional information. Laboratory information systems coordinate a multitude of lab reports as well.

As in other disciplines, technology has brought efficiency to the entire process from diagnosis and treatment to the distribution of prescriptions, making access to healthcare easier in the long run. Similarly, technology has created a modern generation of new job opportunities in the healthcare space, especially in the nursing profession. If you are contemplating a career in nursing, there are several exceptional online programs that can enable your entry or expand your current skill sets in this exciting field.

There is increasing emphasis today that nursing candidates obtain a bachelor’s degree, but in order to excel at higher levels, an online graduate degree would open more doors of opportunity. One of the best offerings is the Marymount University graduate nursing program online. There are no GMAT/GRE test scores required for admission, and the institution has a 100% pass rate for its graduates on AANP and ANCC certification exams. This university also offers to place you in a position near your home at no cost to you after graduation.

Is now the time to consider making an investment in your future in the nursing profession? Online course studies are designed so that you can proceed at your own pace, and a graduate program equips you with the leadership skills to succeed, whether as a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) or a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). Read on to learn more about what you might learn about the impact of technology on medical care, the potential roles that are available, average compensation levels, and future trends that will impact the profession.

How has technology changed the healthcare profession?

The impact of technology on healthcare has been enormous and almost indescribable. Automation has eliminated long lines in offices, enabled better outcomes at reduced costs, enhanced communication between providers and their patients, improved surgical procedures, raised the quality of service to a much higher level, and added many other benefits as well.

Healthcare has always been a heavily regulated industry, but sophisticated software programs have led to a greater sharing of data and concentration of key information within this regulatory framework. Doctors and nurses have quicker access to information and diagnostic tools to assist on the front end, while monitoring and tracking algorithms assist with the efficient application of medical services down the road.

Medical equipment has undergone a radical change over the past few decades, leading to robots performing surgeries on a remote basis and monitoring devices that can accurately predict behaviors and functions in the future. Patients now have portals for easy access to health information, making appointments, and communicating with their providers. What does the future hold? Enhancements and improvements are a daily occurrence and are sure to continue.

Typical courses offered for an advanced DNP/FNP degree

If you are already a nurse or want to change career paths, technology has also provided a mechanism for achieving your goals: online degree programs. In order to succeed in this profession, you need to understand the use of today’s modern tools and processes. It may seem that the time allowed for direct contact with patients has been lessened, but the net effect is that the system can now handle more patients than ever before.

What course of study do these modern online programs offer? The primary goal of these programs is to introduce you to the world of modern medicine and enhance your personal knowledge base and skills. A basic foundation will begin with courses in leadership, communication skills, ethics, and how best to interview a patient in a methodical manner in order to arrive at an evidence-informed diagnosis and treatment plan.

You will learn what it means to make an advanced health assessment, how to use the latest innovations in care delivery, and how to incorporate a host of variables – including physiological, psychological, sociological, spiritual, and developmental factors – to arrive at a well-reasoned diagnosis. Real life clinical and laboratory experiences will illustrate how best to fulfill your task as a health professional in today’s medical environment.

Additional courses will focus on continuous quality management and related business practices. In most cases, this course of study will cover a blend of subjects across the entire nursing profession while also touching upon policy development and financial administration. Programs also allow for the specialization of coursework to provide a greater focus on a specific discipline, whether in diagnostics, treatment, or techniques.

How do you develop hands-on skills in an online program? Usually, a clinical placement coordinator will find you a local onsite facility where clinical rotations are present. These skills will form a basis for your daily routine in how you deliver patient care. The length of these programs can also vary, but the average timeframe is 18 months. More time may be necessary depending on your actual experience and depth of degree.

Roles and responsibilities of a nurse practitioner

According to the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), American patients today make over 1.06 billion visits each year to consult with their nurse practitioner. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the aging baby boomer generation, a majority of states are liberalizing and expanding the roles and responsibilities of NPs to address the ongoing shortage of trained physicians. Nurse practitioners are trained in diagnosis, treating health conditions, preventing disease, and ultimately healthcare management.

Nurse practitioners are unique in their approach, which differs from other providers. In general, NPs emphasize the well-being of an individual from a holistic health perspective. In addition to basic treatment and care, NPs also promote a healthy lifestyle, disease prevention, and an understanding of how to make the best choices for an enjoyable life over the long term.

The roles and responsibilities of a nurse practitioner can run the full gamut of healthcare services, whether it is in a primary, acute, or specialty setting. In addition to diagnosing and providing treatment plans for acute and chronic health conditions, the NP will also be in charge of ordering various tests required and even performing the actual lab work or x-ray analysis. Following these tasks would be the prescribing and ordering of medications, counseling the patient on how treatment will proceed, and communicating useful information about disease prevention and healthy lifestyle choices.

Nurse practitioners can be licensed in every state of the union, including the District of Columbia, and they must adhere to the regulations promulgated in the location of their license. Whether it is in a suburban location, a city, or a rural region, NPs are known to provide quality healthcare in a variety of settings. These settings can include hospitals, clinics, urgent care offices, private practice locations, nursing homes, and even schools and universities.

Future trends in the nurse practitioner field

As a twist on another metaphor, technology never sleeps, and nor does its impact on the delivery of healthcare. There are several emerging trends in the healthcare industry that will continue to reshape the necessary skill sets to perform at a high level in the future. It is not only technology, however, that is changing the world. In the healthcare arena, population demographics and the havoc wreaked by the recent Covid-19 pandemic have increased the demand for qualified NPs across the country.

According to the president of the AANP, almost 100 million Americans now lack convenient access to a primary care physician or facility. An increasing number of states are now allowing NPs to provide full practice services, when before there had been a requirement for a supporting physician to be in agreement with their actions. Over 350,000 NPs are in service today, and present demand trends are forecasted to increase that level by 46% from 2021 to 2031.

The states where shortages are the greatest are also the ones that are lagging behind in granting patients direct access to nurse practitioners. According to recent AANP surveys, nearly 50% of patients have to wait as much as a month to receive healthcare, and others must wait an average of two months. For these reasons and others, jobs for NPs are now the highest-ranking growth area in the healthcare industry, as well as being the second in all jobs in the nation.

What technology trends will provide solutions going forward for the healthcare industry? The digitization of healthcare records and processes will continue unabated, but other enhancements are either on the way or are already being tested at onsite locations. As the general population ages, the demand for processing and collating lab test results will also grow. Laboratory information systems are being developed to automate the entire process to lead to speedier diagnosis and treatment.

In order to address the severe shortage of qualified healthcare professionals, there are two initiatives that continue to gain traction. First is the creation of online training courses, like the ones described above, in order to attract and train new recruits or those individuals seeking a career change or advancement in the healthcare industry. Secondly, new websites and networks are evolving, like Nurse.com, to address the need to share and allocate nursing resources across disparate healthcare systems.

Innovations in surgical equipment and processes will proceed as well, but the advent of 3D printing has been a boon for the industry. Aside from promising results in the production of bone and tissue replacements, these new-age printers have also produced necessary products onsite when shortages arose in protective gear and medical supplies.

Lastly, monitoring a patient’s health from a remote location is now happening in real time, whether through the use of smartwatches or other tracking devices, in order to communicate with central servers that enable NPs or other health professionals to dispense care. This approach can cut down on the crowding of patients in waiting rooms at hospitals and clinics, especially for chronic conditions like asthma.

Healthcare and technology

Technology will continue to impact the healthcare industry in a favorable manner, and nurse practitioners will need additional training to ride the wave of this trend. NPs are in high demand, and current trend forecasts show no decline in this demand for the foreseeable future.