Friday, May 13, 2016

The Gains Of Telehealth Nursing

By John Roberts


There are no doubts that the world has finally reached the digital era. You can barely find any industry that does not rely on technology to offer its services. Among the various industries that continue to benefit from the advances of technology, the health sector is arguably the biggest beneficiary. With various innovations like telehealth nursing, no one can dispute the significant role technology has in that sector.

There are various telemedicine technologies currently available to health care providers working in home care as well as other community settings. In addition, the rate at which newer forms of electronic technologies meant to improve home care nursing is being introduced continues to rise by the day. This means that there are many benefits to using such forms of technology in the provision of health care services in general.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing is among the fastest growing occupations. The number of qualified nurses has increased tremendously over the past few years. However, the same studies project that nearly half of the registered nurses are approaching retirement age. Statistics also indicate that nursing school enrollment has recorded a sharp decline. This means that there is an impending shortage of nurses in the near future.

With such projections, it is obvious that there will be an acute shortage of those health care professionals. Those statistics get worse when records show that the number of people taking up nursing profession has also declined. The world still needs nurses who work in the traditional hospital settings. This is besides the new positions that have to be filled in home health. This is where technology will help meet the need for nurses.

If you still believe that telenursing is not an appropriate innovation, you need to figure out what it is going to offer. One of the things that come with that form of technology is increased access to educational opportunities. This means that nurses will be in a position to continually learn new skills and ideas, without having to disrupt their work schedules. It will also help to improve their decision-making skills.

In the past, nurses had to wait for new semesters for them to attend classes to gain knowledge. This would imply having to get a replacement at their place of work. With the looming shortage of nurses, that will be highly inconvenience. Thanks to technology, nurses can now attend virtual classes over the internet. When it comes to practicing clinical skills, they can use patient simulation modeling and much more.

One of the greatest concerns in the nursing industry was the time being spent on paperwork. Naturally, a nurse should spend most of their time attending to patients instead of doing paperwork. Telemedicine has made it possible for nurses to have improved charting efficiency by introducing user-friendly software programs.

Telenursing is also helping to increase the involvement of patients in their health care. Patients these days have direct access to information regarding various conditions and their treatments. This goes a long way to improve the discussions between the patients and the professionals. It is unlike the traditional relationships in which patients were mostly passive.




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