Emerging Healthcare Technology

How has the nurses’ workplace changed?

There has been a lot of talk about how technology can improve patient outcomes, but there is a huge impact on nursing as well. Advantages include greater accuracy, fewer employee infections, and better spread of information. The healthcare industry is relying on technology to make up for the nursing shortage and improve patient outcomes as well. But it's time to stop and assess the impact of healthcare technology on nursing, which is the world's largest healthcare workforce.

Healthcare nursing service providers have many roles, and the nursing sector includes the largest number of workers in this field. For instance, the nursing workforce in a country like the United States is the size of the army.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 4,600,000 female nurses by the end of 2017. Until 2020, the number had increased significantly, but according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), there is still a nursing shortage, and this applies to most countries in the world.

Hence, there was a trend to digitize the sector and the use of technology. What were the results?

Continuous Developments

The digitization of healthcare and related technologies is accelerating to help solve this staff shortage. The past year has been a successful year for the healthcare IT industry, according to the Semi-Annual Health IT Market Review by Healthcare Growth Partners. Investments in assistive technology, Internet of Things in healthcare and other healthcare technologies are seeing similar spikes.

Many nursing behaviors have changed over the last 40 years. THE DIGITIZATION OF HEALTHCARE AND RELATED TECHNOLOGIES IS ACCELERATING TO HELP SOLVE THIS STAFF SHORTAGE. THE PAST YEAR HAS BEEN A SUCCESSFUL YEAR FOR THE HEALTHCARE IT INDUSTRY, ACCORDING TO THE SEMIANNUAL HEALTH IT MARKET REVIEW BY HEALTHCARE GROWTH PARTNERS.

As technology advances, many aspects of nursing have improved, with greater accuracy, better patient outcomes, fewer employee infections, and better spread of information. Technologies such as some types of pumps, electronic graphs, and telemetry monitors used in nursing work have changed a lot. Intravenous pumps automatically control doses and drops, and electronic graphs are replacing the quick, handwritten notes of healthcare professionals. New technologies are automating business processes and patient safety procedures. Portable telemetry devices make it possible to monitor a patient's condition even if the nurse or patient is on the move.

Nursing experts and designers of the new machines say technology has made nursing specialties at the forefront of specialties. Today, the nurse’s job is easier, as we have the efficiency of having medical records at our fingertips. The trend towards nursing specialties is even greater thanks to the introduction of technology into this sector. It improved communication, enhanced documentation, introduced evidence-based practices, and led to many high-quality innovations, providing a safer and more efficient work environment. These advantages that accrue to patients are clear. The importance of technological assistance in the daily work of nurses has brought about a clear health revolution. For example, giving five patients their medication at about 9 a.m. may seem simple and routine, but it's often not so simple. A consultant in health informatics and digital strategy and a professor at Baylor College of Medicine says that there are many cases in which the patient may refrain from taking the necessary medication, or other reasons may prevent this, which affects the patient's health and the level of medical service in general. While the techniques in this field can be invaluable to nurses. When technology in hospital is disabled for whatever reason, it's a huge disruption for a very busy, multitasking nurse, especially when it comes to entering data or determining some information.

The Emirates is an example

With the aim of studying the impact of technological development on the practice of the nursing profession, and under the slogan “The Future View of Nursing in the Era of Technological Development”, the Ministry of Health and Prevention in the UAE organized the first nursing conference in 2018. The participants emphasized the importance of providing the latest technical and technological services in various types of healthcare, especially in the nursing sector, given the importance of integrating technology into healthcare services to help nursing staff keep abreast of the latest developments in nursing technology and modern nursing practices. This will allow them to deal with daily challenges, with the introduction of robots in the field of healthcare services, and their success in providing the best results in record time and less human error, in addition to the importance of benefiting from artificial intelligence and advanced technology and utilizing them in developing medical and operational efficiency.

The Ministry of Health and Prevention considers nursing informatics to be one of the vital fields in nursing care at the global level, with the aim of training and guiding nursing staff in the UAE to use the medical information technology in order to improve the level of healthcare SOPHISTICATED COMPUTING AND MACHINE LEARNING MUST ALSO PLAY A ROLE IN THE HEALTHCARE IOT TO HAVE THE MOST POWERFUL AND SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS ON PATIENT CARE AND OUTCOMES, AND TO MAKE THE WORK OF NURSES MORE INNOVATIVE. SOPHISTICATED COMPUTING REQUIRES DATA PROCESSING CLOSE TO ITS SOURCE.

provided to patients, in an effort to achieve the Ministry’s strategy to enhance community health by providing comprehensive, innovative and sustainable health services with global standards that exceed expectations for a happy society.

In the UAE, one of the most important initiatives in this field at the regional level is the national initiative to enhance the attractiveness of nursing, which aims to attract national employees with the number and quality appropriate to the community’s health needs, which contributes to providing distinguished healthcare that suits the country’s environment and culture and helps to implement plans to localize the profession, ensuring a prominent position for the UAE so it becomes at the forefront of the healthcare industry in the region and the world.

There are plenty of advances every day, as tech-savvy consumers bring the Internet of Things into healthcare and nursing through their wearables, apps, and data. This is because many diseases and early deaths are caused by behaviors that can be changed, and specialists assert that technology can change behavior. TECHNOLOGY IS ALSO USEFUL IN THE EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF HEALTH PROBLEMS, ALLOWING FOR EARLIER INTERVENTION AND BETTER OUTCOMES.