Name
Capella University
NURS_FPX6030
Instructor’s Name
October 8th, 2024
Practicum and Technological Changes
In this section, the author shows how technology is core to nursing practice especially in nursing care and training. The practicum experience is crucial in this transformation process because it enables the nursing students to practice theoretical content in a clinical setting enhancing the use of technology (Copeland, 2022). Therefore, the paper’s purpose is to describe the changes in technology that are currently being used in the healthcare field like EHRs, CDSS, telehealth, and wearable devices, and identify how these technologies bring new learning experiences as well as difficulties to the nursing students.
Technological Advances in Nursing
The following part shows a range of technologies and their effects on nursing education and practice. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are general, updated, and unified solutions that eliminate confusion and facilitate improved control of patients’ records (Fennelly et al., 2022). These tools are used during a practicum to chart patient encounters and for learning patient histories, so students develop an understanding of how important and precise records are kept. Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) support clinical decision-making by providing decision-makers with facility of advice based on well-researched information.
The patients’ real information is utilized to model the diagnostic, treatment, and clinical decision system that nursing students practice in the real world. Telehealth technologies allow students to extend their knowledge of patient monitoring outside facilities and consultation, regardless of the need for an actual local presence an aspect that is coming to the forefront of healthcare, particularly in rural and distant regions at the moment (Hossain et al., 2023). This section emphasizes telehealth platforms and virtual care where students’ transition takes place so that they are ready for the changing telemedicine environment.
Finally, mostly used wearable health devices such as fitness trackers and smartwatches enable constant tracking of a patient’s health. These gadgets help the extent to which patients’ data nurses learn how to decode these tracks and make sound decisions based on patients’ health indicators, and activity regimes among others.
Benefits of Technological Integration in Practicum
Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
Electronic health records have brought a radical change in the elicitation and documentation of patient information as they provide comprehensive centralized data in real-time (Harnett et al., 2023). Electronic health records enable the reduction of catheters in patient records, mistakes that can occur while documenting an episode of care, and have less risk than when information is stored on paper EHRs also make it easier for various healthcare providers, including nurses, to get updated information on readily accessible records (Harnett et al., 2023). To the nursing students in practicum, the EHRs enable them to document patients’ encounters, view patients’ previous records, and provide updates to clinical timelines as they proceed.
This I found beneficial as it enables students to learn that thorough record-keeping is critical to health delivery due to its contribution to effective patient continuity (Mebrahtu et al., 2021). Furthermore, EHRs foster coordination of care among the different caregivers by using the same database to share information with other caregivers, students can observe how multi-disciplinary teams will be using the same platform to manage patient care. This not only promotes students’ technical skills but also emphasizes the role of documentation in advancing learners’ patient standards and security.
Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS)
CDSS are implemented as computer systems intended to offer timely clinical decision support by using patient-specific data. These systems process and interpret patient information, and provide clinicians with suggestions for diagnosis, treatment choices, and prognosis. CDSS is acquired by the nursing students during the practical nursing experience through their practicum where they implement theory (Wallace et al., 2021). It means that through these tools, students can develop such clinical decisions as may be required by the existing conditions in actual practice. CDSS improves learning by providing information on the latest best practices; the students develop decision-making skills. Skills in utilizing such systems to inform practice not only enhance the health of patients but also enhance understanding of clinical judgment and the value of evidence-based, coordinated computing in nursing practice.
Telehealth Technologies
Telehealth is now increasingly embraced as a crucial delivery model, particularly in areas where there is a shortage of physicians. It contains features for telehealth check-ins, asynchronous monitoring of patient symptoms and vital signs, and post-visit consultations. Modern nursing students in their practice get acquainted with telehealth systems and use them to interact with patients (Wallace et al., 2021). These platforms mimic actual life health care environments, for instance, providing a remote consultation or managing, a patient with a chronic disease, among others. Telehealth enables students to familiarise themselves with virtual interpersonal skills, telephone triage, and care coordination aptitudes that are vital seeing that telemedicine expands its coverage (Muhiyaddin et al., 2020). It also shows students the need to give care especially where there are few healthcare institutions, and come prepared to have a feel of the role that technology is going to play in the growth and development of access to healthcare in different parts of the world.
Wearable Health Devices
Wearable devices, including fitness trackers and smartwatches, are focusing on capturing short-term health data in out-of-hospital environments. These devices constantly monitor vital signs, physical activity, and sleep patterns, giving a close-up view of a patient’s health status (Hickey et al., 2021). From the point of view of nursing students, wearable devices let them practice interpreting and evaluating constant health information of patients. Students can predict various health-related risks using data collected from these devices, and recommend the early intervention to enhance the patient’s condition (Hickey et al., 2021). Wearable technology incorporation in nursing practice also enhances patient interaction since patients get more involved in monitoring their health status. Nursing students therefore gain an understanding that embraces preventive and interventional measures as well as enhanced by technologies.
Challenges of Technological Integration in Practicum
Technical Issues
A common issue present when nursing students use technology in practicum areas is technical issues; this ranges from software issues such as bugs or system failure, or even compatibility issues. Electronic health systems or Clinical Decision Support Tools may be hampered by software bugs, which in turn leads to delays in accessing a patient’s data or in making clinical decisions (Berndt, 2020). Interface compatibility issues occur when some of the technologies or software applications used in the healthcare organization do not interconnect optimally; therefore there’s incomplete data or lack of interaction between two or more systems. For instance, a telehealth platform may not be fully integrated with the EHR systems making patient management cumbersome. Moreover, the outdating of technology becomes a problem since the students cannot practice with modern technology, and this therefore becomes a window that lacks the needed competencies of modern nursing practice (Berndt, 2020). These technical problems demoralize the students by lowering their trust in the technology and sparing little time for practical sessions. Consequently, eight technical factors related to reliability and maintenance comprise the primary consideration in implementing technology into nursing education.
Lack of Proper Training
One of the biggest concerns is the insufficient level of preparation of learners and teachers in distance learning environments. A new technology may soon be expected of the students and instructors to have proficient aptitudes when, in fact, they can be complicated and may not require competency as is the case with new technologies (Disch, 2020). Because several of these training programs fail to allow the necessary time and resources to effectively teach and educate the students on the use of these technologies, the students are bound to be inconvenienced. If appropriately trained, the students may be overcome byindexOf functions and data-entry protocols; they are complicated interfaces such as EHR or CDSS. This can lead to the emergence of more errors as much as documentation or decision making thus negating any gains that come with technology in patient care (Disch, 2020). However, often educators themselves are not even well-versed in the modern possibilities of healthcare, which complicates the process of mastering great technologies. To this end, nursing programs have to develop better training models that would cover the adoption of these IT tools, provide support, and give clear directions on the use of the technologies at clinical levels. This gap can be filled by simulation labs, tutorials, as well as mentoring.
Data Security and Privacy Concerns
As one of the major barriers to implementing technology in healthcare, privacy and security of data are highly at risk. Because nursing students interface with patient-specific information through EHRs, telemedicine applications, and other online tools they need to understand the legal & ethical considerations of data privacy (Bani et al., 2020). This means that patients’ information can be exposed to the wrong people, improper safeguards can be put in place or even the wrong people access patients’ records which is dangerous not only legally and ethically. For instance, if a student was giving students a virtual consultation while using headphones and said something like, I feel sick, I have flu, or if a student left a patient’s record open on a computer with public access, it may violate HIPAA laws. This could in turn lead to litigation against the healthcare institution or student.
To manage these risks, there is a great need for the provision of adequate training to the learners on issues to do with data privacy as well as cybersecurity (Bani et al., 2020). The materials that should be included in this training are basic encryption types, measures of information sharing, the significance of using strong passwords, and legal requirements about patient data. Also, students should learn the dangers of cloud-based technologies and mobile health devices because these instruments can easily be penetrated and accessed by unauthorized personnel.
Implications for Future Practice
The main concern of this section, therefore, is the prospective consequences of the technological incorporation into the nursing curriculum. With the continued improvement of the healthcare technological systems, nursing curricula must adopt the progressive Health Informatics Technology and prepare students for the operation of the health systems (Hartweg et al., 2022). These changes will assist learners of the program to meet the technological demands of the global heath arena in the future. Stress is laid down on the provision of ongoing education as the nurses will be required to update themselves with new technology during their working careers. Continuing education for the professional nurse will involve targeted education in the form of new technologies and the application of best practices in the changed healthcare environment (Rivera et al., 2022). Last but not least, the development of technologies means improved collaboration between the teams. Healthcare professionals need to communicate and collaborate with others from different groups of healthcare to produce efficient patient-centered care. Collaboration can be promoted using technology through enhancing information sharing about the patient as well as harmonizing the working of different providers.
NURS FPX 6025 Assessment 4 Conclusion
The conclusion comes back to the thought about the fact that technology in nursing education and practice is a mixed blessing. Wearable technology, telemedicine, EHRs, and CDSS have enriched the practicum experience because they teach students the necessary skills for future healthcare (Khraisat et al., 2023). Despite that, some challenges are still to be worked on to take full advantage of these innovations such as, coming across technical hitches and the problem of security of data. The section of the paper will conclude by urging nursing educators and educational institutions to review nursing curricula and continuing professional development courses to prepare future nurses for future healthcare systems.
NURS FPX 6025 Assessment 4 References
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