B70099 Current Issues And Future Trends In Nursing

Introduction

In the contemporary society, there is a great deal of dynamism. If one were to analyse the changes that have taken place around the globe for the last decade, they could not help but be amazed by the great transformation that they would discover. The same happens with the nursing profession and the working environment. Due to the changes that are happening and that continue to occur, the nursing profession must adjust itself accordingly at each stage of change (Alligood, 2017). This essay is going to focus on two current issues and two future trends in the field of nursing. How each issue impacts the use of healthcare information and management technologies and the influence on current and future nursing practice are going to be assessed and discussed.

Current Issues

One of the current issues in nursing is work place violence. This implies any form of violent behaviour perpetrated against nurses in their work environment. Such form of violence could either be from patients or from the co-workers. To illustrate the intensity of the issue, let us look at some data from the Occupation Health Safety Network. The data indicates that between the year 2012 and 20154, there was a great rise in the numbers of cases of workplace violence. Workplace injury increased for all categories of healthcare professionals. In addition, these cases nearly doubled for nurses and nurse assistants. The data further suggests that across 19 states, a total of 10680 cases were reported. This indicates the number that could be recordable by the administration. The cases occurred between January 2012 and September 2014. This is a high and alarming number and it is evident that something needs to be done to change the trend.

The case of workplace violence is likely to create fear of attack to nurses. When the professional work in an environment where they fear that something bad could happen anytime, they are likely to be unable to use healthcare information fully to provide the highest quality care (Butcher, Bulechek, Dochterman and Wagner, 2018). This is because when a part of the mind is distracted, then it is impossible for one to function optimally. These cases are also likely to promote more security technologies from the administrations of health care facilities. In an endeavour to ensure that the nurses and other health care professionals are safe, it would be necessary to employ new and advanced technology and systems to ensure that security is kept at maximum. The current effect of the issue is creating fear among the health workers. In future, this is likely to lead to quitting of jobs by nurses. It is hard for a person to work where their security is not guaranteed.

The other current issue of concern in nursing is work place hazards. Each day while at work nurses are exposed to various hazards. These include injuries, exposure to blood borne pathogens, dermatitis that is related to hand washing and flu (Kelloway, Francis, Gatien and Belcourt, 2017). Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) indicates that an approximate of 5.6 million healthcare workers are at risk of being exposed to blood borne pathogens (Brownson, Deshpande and Gillespie, 2017). The number of injuries experienced in the health care work environment is also more than those experienced in other industries (Nieswiadomy and Bailey, 2017). This too is likely to create some fear in the nurses. These statistics are shocking. As indicated above, when nurses are worried that something bad may happen to them, their ability to offer the highest possible quality of care is substantially reduced. The management would be tasked to come up with technologies and ways of reducing these work place hazards. This way, the nurses would feel more comfortable in the working environment. consequently, quality of care would improve.

Future Trends

Integration of technology in to the field of nursing seems an inevitable move in the future. According to McEwen and Wills (2017), there has been great changes in the technological realm. For example, most people now own a smartphone or a tablet. There is also an increased rate in computer literacy (LoBiondo-Wood and Haber, 2017). This would mean that nurses would have to integrate the new technology in to their operations soon. For instance, there would be need for more remote care due to the technology. Services such as maintaining an online database for a client would also be necessary for easier coordination of care. The technology will bring a revolution in the field of nursing.

Integration of technology is likely to make the work easier for nurses. For instance, they would be able to learn about the current developments in their area of practice remotely using their smartphones or computers. This is likely to improve quality of care through use of the most current information. The process of management is likely to become easier due to faster and more effective means of communication.

The other future change would be changes in the education of nurses. Due to modern medicine, people are living for longer. The populations are also increasing and becoming more diverse (Hamilton, 2017). To effectively deal with these issues, it will be necessary that the future nurses undergo through vigorous training. For instance, they should be trained about how to take care of the increasing aging population. The effect of this on use of healthcare information would be focus on changing population needs. there would also be a great shift on skills on hoe to interact with diverse cultures and observance of ethics in the process of care. Regarding the management, it would be very necessary that the administration endeavour to equip the nurses who are working at this time with skills that are needed to work effectively in a changing environment. This could be done through such means as trainings. To embrace technology, these can be carried out remotely. An interphase could be created where nurses would interact with the materials of training remotely. This would be convenient as each nurse would be able to work with their schedules.

References

Alligood, M. R. (2017). Nursing Theorists and Their Work-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Brownson, R. C., Deshpande, A. D., & Gillespie, K. N. (2017). Evidence-based public health. Oxford university press.

Butcher, H. K., Blucher, G. M., Dochterman, J. M. M., & Wagner, C. (2018). Nursing Interventions classification (NIC)-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Hamilton, D. (2017). New standards and framework will map out the future of nursing. British Journal of Nursing, 26(14), 832-832.

Kelloway, E. K., Francis, L. D., Gatien, B., & Belcourt, M. (2017). Management of occupational health and safety. Nelson Education.

LoBiondo-Wood, G., & Haber, J. (2017). Nursing Research-E-Book: Methods and Critical Appraisal for Evidence-Based Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2017). Theoretical basis for nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Nieswiadomy, R. M., & Bailey, C. (2017). Foundations of nursing research. Pearson.