Technology is the application of knowledge on usage of machines or tools, techniques and organization of methods, in order to solve or improve a pre-existing problem. The application of technology, know as Tele-nursing, means the application of technology to deliver and improve nursing care through performing nursing practice. Tele-nursing enables nurses to do assessments, plan the care, come up with interventions and monitor the patients, by use of technologies such as the computers, the internet, digital assessment tools, telephones and Tele-monitoring apparatus. The complexity of patients care technology has altered the nature of nursing care delivery. Earlier, before the inventions, nurses relied on their five senses to check on the patient’s progress. However, this has changed over time since technology has been designed to identify the patient’s progress. Advancements in nursing technology has improved service delivery by the nursing staff and improved the patient’s chances of recovery.
Tele-technologies provide many health services that aid in the monitoring and recovery of the patients. Patient care technologies of concern to nurses range from simple equipments likes syringes and catheters, to extremely complex devices, such as electronic health records and barcode medication administration systems. Adherence and compliance issues are significant to ensuring patient safety. Some patients blame their failure to adhere to medication regimes to factors such as miscommunication, complex treatment regime and poor understanding due to need for additional guidance.
Tele-health is applicable for communication with and monitoring of patients beyond the hospital setting. Furthermore, it also had an impact on health care use by redu...
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... of mistakes in the health care practice. As the years go on and the innovations keep coming out, the hospitals and the nurses gain because the number of oversights, miscalculations or inaccuracies continues to decrease as well.
Works Cited
Jennifer W., A., Eric A., S., Adam B., L., Laura, W., Janet H., S., Toree, M., & Gary R., G. (2006). Home-based Behavioral Health Intervention: Use of a Telehealth Model to Address Poor Adherence to Type-1 Diabetes Medical Regimens. Telemedicine & E-Health, 12(3), 370-372.
Meadows, G. (2003). Improving the Patient Experience with Information Technology. Nursing Economic$, 21(6), 300-301.
Poon, E. G., Keohane, C. A., Yoon, C. S., Ditmore, M., Bane, A., Levtzion-Korach, O., ... & Gandhi, T. K. (2010). Effect of bar-code technology on the safety of medication administration. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(18), 1698-1707.
This technology assist the nurse in confirming patients identify by confirming the patients’ dose, time and form of medication (Helmons, Wargel, & Daniels, 2009). Having an EHR also comes with a program that allows the medical staff to scan medications so medication errors can be prevented. According to Helmons, Wargel, and Daniels (2009) they conducted an observational study in two medical –surgical units one in the medical intensive care (ICU) and one in the surgical ICU. The researchers watched 386 nurses within the two hospitals use bar code scanning before they administrated patients’ medications. The results of the research found a 58 % decrease in medication errors between the two hospitals because of the EHR containing a bar code assisted medication administration
Shea, S. (2007). The Informatics for Diabetes and Education Telemedicine (IDEATel) Project. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 118, 289-304.
According to the author, nursing practice needs to stay current with technological advances while keeping its identity as a patient focused profession. Nurses use technology to improve care from a patient?s perspective, both in quality of care and cost. At the same time, nurses must learn to balance technological knowledge with personal skills, thus providing optimum clinical care while maintaining a person-focused relationship with the patient.
Shore, J. H., Brooks, E., Savin, D. M., Manson, S. M., & Libby, A. M. (2007, June). An economic evaluation of telehealth data collection with rural populations. Psychiatic Services, 58(6), 830-835.
Prinz, L., Cramer, M. & Englund, A. (2008). Telehealth: A policy analysis for quality, impact on
Telemetry nurses use various types of medical technology to monitor patients' vitals such as blood pressure, heart activity, breathing patterns, and blood oxygen saturation. They record and interpret this data to assess their patient's recovery rates. They also share this information with physicians and other health care experts to determine treatment methods. Telemetry nurses must meticulously track all medications in order to avoid any negative drug interactions. Telemetry nurses are involved at the beginning of care when they assist doctors with procedures and diagnostics.
Properly implemented and medication-use technology has the potential to moderate these costs. Bar-code-assisted medication administration (BCMA) has been shown to reduce medication administration errors by as much as 54-86%. BCMA, along with computerized electronic prescriber order entry and an electronic medication administration record, closes a technological loop that extends from the transmission of the order to the administration of the medication at bedside (Strykowski, Hadsall, Sawchyn, VanSickle, Niznick,
Before starting this course and before reading the first section of Wall of silence: The untold story of the medical mistakes that kill and injure millions of Americans, I did not have much awareness of medical errors. My awareness extends to hearing stories about medical utensils and supplies being left in patients after surgery or hearing stories of patient receiving the wrong dose of medication, but hearing stories about the extent of deaths related to medical errors left me astonished. I was in awe reading the amount of deaths reported each year related to medical errors, not including the errors that are not reported. This book brings about the awareness and importance of implementing strategies to decrease medical errors.
Nurses are fundamental to the process of implementation of certain systems used in the workplace. Nurses should be allowed to have input and suggestions regarding what works and what doesn’t when it comes to those systems, whether it is the EMR, healthcare organization systems, or even the use of point of care systems (Mitchell, 2011). This allows for open collaboration between the nurses and information technology to come up with solutions and user friendly applications when needed. The technology world is ever changing and with that comes new ways to monitor and take care of our patients.
Improving health is in the best interest of everyone, including non-health professionals. Health managers need to be constantly looking for ways to improve access to health care, the quality of the care, and cost containment. Often, the biggest barriers to accessing healthcare are cost and location. Lower income individuals just do not have the resources to have optimal healthcare, or cannot take the time away from employment to deal with health issues. One potential solution to help with these problems could be “telehealth.”
Young, J., Slebodnik, M., & Sands, L. (2010). Bar code technology and medication administration error. Journal of Patient Safety, 6(2), 115-120. doi:10.1097/PTS.0b013e3181de35f7
Technology is stated as the scientific method and material used to achieve a commercial or industrial objective. To go one step further, nursing technology is using a tool to advance nursing practice. “The Institute of medicine identified that technology as a viable method of enhancing patient care delivery and improving staff productivity” Sensmeier, Horowitz (2003 page). Because inadequate nursing staff causes shortcuts to be taken, there are mistakes made that could have possibly been prevented. Errors by nursing staff were variously reported as being responsible for between 44,000 and 98,000 hospital deaths per year. Sensmeier, Horowitz (2003). Technology can have a large impact on nursing. In the past 5 to 10 years, computerized patient records have increased less than 10%. This number shows us that we are still not embracing technology to its full potential. Today in most hospital systems computerized electronic charting is being used. Many hospitals have many different systems for...
Technology and innovation have transformed the way people function personally and professionally. In the past, writing and mailing a letter was standard but now most people send electronic messages and text messages to phones. Healthcare has been changing tremendously as well, not only are paper charts and records becoming obsolete, but now many facilities are sharing test results, visit information details, and prescribed drug lists. This move into the digital age has helped improve healthcare by cutting costs in the long-term, increasing efficiency with decreased wait times, and reducing medical errors. This evolving technology expansion, commonly referred to as nursing informatics has created many opportunities for nursing professionals with information technology experience to move into this growing field.
Nursing Informatics is a nursing field that involves record keeping and focuses on finding ways to improve information management and communications in nursing to improve efficiency, reduce costs and enhance the quality of patient care. This field is primarily administrative but plays a part in patient care and quality of health care. There are other types of nurses, but many people focus on the nurses who perform the medical treatments with the doctors. This is evident in many films, TV shows, and in other popular media outlets. However, many people do not know what nursing informatics is nor pay attention to that side of nursing which involves the documentation of records and other miscellaneous items, use of advances in technology to improve
The health care is extremely important to society because without health care it would not be possible for individuals to remain healthy. The health care administers care, treats, and diagnoses millions of individual’s everyday from newborn to fatal illness patients. The health care consists of hospitals, outpatient care, doctors, employees, and nurses. Within the health care there are always changes occurring because of advance technology and without advance technology the health care would not be as successful as it is today. Technology has played a big role in the health care and will continue in the coming years with new methods and procedures of diagnosis and treatment to help safe lives of the American people. However, with plenty of advance technology the health care still manages to make an excessive amount of medical errors. Health care organizations face many issues and these issues have a negative impact on the health care system. There are different ways medical errors can occur within the health care. Medical errors are mistakes that are made by health care providers with no intention of harming patients. These errors rang from communication error, surgical error, manufacture error, diagnostic error, and wrong medication error. There are hundreds of thousands of patients that die every year due to medical error. With medical errors on the rise it has caused the United States to be the third leading cause of death. (Allen.M, 2013) Throughout the United States there are many issues the he...