Sunday, May 8, 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.

You will be surprised that nursing has become one of the occupations that have recorded the fastest growth in this era. This is according to the studies by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is interesting to note however, that almost half of the registered nurses today will be retiring in a few years. This will leave a looming shortage of nurses in the health care industry.

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.

For the world to realize an improvement in the quality of care, telemedicine has to be fully integrated in the health care industry. This can help foster better working environment by exposing nurses to newer ideas and skills all the time. Nurses will also get better access to opportunities in education, which will improve decision making, with better access to information and better documentation that will decrease charting time.

Nurses now enjoy better educational opportunities due to technology. They can attend virtual programs, which are more convenient as they can also interact with other students from across the globe. What is more is the fact that they do not have to break from their duties. One can attend those classes after work even in their living room or during lunch break. Accessing better knowledge is now immediately available to them.

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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