Nursing is a highly demanding and fulfilling profession. It gives you the chance to touch the hearts of millions and save their lives. The COVID-19 pandemic situation showed how doctors and nurses played their part in saving the human race.
When the entire world was fighting a deadly virus, these professionals came out as the warriors that only focused on saving lives. So, if you are an aspiring nurse or thinking about joining this industry, know that what makes you successful is your nature of being empathetic and caring towards the living.
However, being a professional in this industry will also require proper knowledge about the technical advancements that control the expansion of this domain. Technological innovations define the evolution of every industry. No wonder the healthcare industry is also being run by the latest technologies that aim to simplify tasks while delivering outstanding services to the users.
One tool that deserves special mention here is the nurse calling system. It is the system responsible for seamless communication between the patients and the health care service provider. It is one innovative device that enables nurses to provide prompt services to their patients.
As these devices are known for easing communication between both parties, healthcare institutions can provide excellent services to their patients round the clock.
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What other technologies dominate this industry other than the nurse call device?
Let’s find out here:
Robotics
Let’s acknowledge that every task can become monotonous for the professional if they aren’t updated regularly. Robotics is pretty dominant in the healthcare industry. It governs different facilities like carrying medical devices, disinfection, medical management, lifting bedridden patients, greeting and navigating relatives and patients, etc.
Check out the robust robot and its streamlined features that make the in-hospital transportation of drugs, medical devices, and even laboratory specimens easier.
They can carry almost all the racks and carts around the hospital area at any time.
How is it helpful for the nurses?
Well, now nurses do not have to worry about carrying or moving these devices anymore and can concentrate on serving the patients round the clock. Also, some robots can carry out repetitive tasks entirely autonomously.
These robots are capable of monitoring patients’ vital statistics and alerting nurses when a human presence is required in the room, allowing the nurse to monitor various patients at once.
The robots also automatically enter information into an electronic health record for each patient, which allows for faster data entry with fewer errors compared to manual data entry by attendants.
There are robotic carts that will travel throughout hospital hallways carrying supplies for rooms, and there are even surgical robots that assist doctors with surgery in a less invasive way than traditionally done, such as with smaller incisions and using robotics instead of manual tools (including forceps) which require larger incisions by surgeons.
Smart Beds
The innovative smart bed technology seems to be pretty dominant in the healthcare sector. It helps nurses track their patients’ movements, vitals, and weight. It also plays a significant role in keeping the patients comfortable and safe during a long day.
The smart bed technology also enables the nurses to conduct in-room monitoring and regular updates and communications.
Therefore, it keeps the nurses updated about the patterns and conditions of their patients. Being updated with the information can help the nurses deal with emergencies appropriately.
The medical bed of the future possesses a number of new advanced features, which will make it easier for carers to better deliver medical treatments to their patients during nighttime whilst also enabling them to deploy an advanced range with sensors that are designed.
The global market is expanding, and this is likely due to the increase in demand being witnessed throughout the world, as hospital carers there have indicated they need beds that are more modernized and sophisticated.
Additionally, there have been some issues relating to safety relating to electric beds, but these no longer exist in the latest models because they have introduced selective distribution of power supply due to overloading (or short circuits) systems thereby preventing limitless portions of electricity from entering the environment.
If your center aims to provide seamless and hassle-free services to your patients, smart beds will be an excellent investment for you.
IV Pumps
The next one on the list is the automated IV pumps used to provide dosages and drips to the patients. Again, the software and the technology allow the nurses to change the drip as per the doctor’s instructions.
So, these are the nutritional ones that provide meals to the patients at the appropriate times. Also, you can find the known self-pumps that help allow the patients to increase the controlled amount of their medications as and when required.
Automated IV kits are helpful for the nurses as they can speed up without giving the food or medications on time. They can now adjust the settings and let the devices provide nutrition to the patients. At the same time, they focus on more critical work like handling clinical patients and other medical surgeries. Some nursing schools are also providing training on these latest gadgets that use such technology to help nurses provide seamless and better medical facilities.
IV pumps are advanced devices that can measure the flow of fluids during IVs. These pumps deliver only a controlled amount of fluids at a set rate to ensure that neither the flow nor the rate changes throughout the duration of the IV.
IV infusion pumps are used by nurses to avoid errors in overdoses and over-administering intravenous fluids, which could be harmful to patients.
Wearable Devices
You have been using smart gadgets for a long time. These applications and smart devices help you navigate throughout the day pretty quickly. The same occurs with the nurses, too, as they now can wear these smart gadgets that can track their patients’ respiration, sleep patterns, heart rates, exercises, etc.
These devices can be fully synced with smartphones and other gadgets that provide an in-depth report about the patent’s current status.
For example, check the smartphone stethoscope, which is a stethoscope application. It helps healthcare professionals use their smartphones to calculate heart rates and breathing sounds. The application can get the full range of data about their patient’s medical needs and track them without any hassles.
In rehabilitation services, wearable patient gadgets to assist with neurological issues are routinely employed. Patients’ activity levels can be increased by wearing pedometers and accelerometers during physical therapy.
Rehabilitation units worn by patients in rehabilitation services include pedometers and accelerometers to monitor the movement of certain muscles as they progress throughout their therapy sessions. These devices create individual-specific motion algorithms that help detect problems affecting a patient. This way, they’re able to adjust equipment accordingly before the patient suffers an injury due to improper muscle activation or wear out of certain parts/limbs.
This wearable technology provides information regarding the patient’s physical activity level.
Their physical activity will also show how close they’re coming to their ideal workout routine as described in their individualized exercise program, and this technology is based on objective measurements collected by trained healthcare professionals.
It’s a lot more reliable and less subject to human error than older methods of statistical data collection such as subjective interviews. In previous studies, nurses would repeat measurements independently depending on the area each patient was in at the time, which could get inaccurate because settings for every person remained inconsistent.
These wearable devices are essential now as they help lower the occurrences of human errors and allow nurses to keep records properly. They help nurses offer services without fail manage data and keep them safe.
Portable Monitors
Portable monitors are the ones that you can carry anywhere. So, it allows the nursing professionals to check the patients while they are on the move.
They can attend to multiple patients and still monitor their progress with these gadgets. These portable devices are useful for keeping track of vital signs like oxygen saturation, respiratory rates, ECG, etc.
So, during emergencies, these devices can help notify the nurses. In addition, features like alarms and alerts can be sent to the nurses periodically to help them save many more lives.
Remote Communication
The next one on the list is remote communication. During the pandemic, one of the things required was boosting telemedicine into mainstream practice. It is an effective tool that can reduce unnecessary hospital visits.
It can lower the risks of cross-infection while it helps in providing better medical help. Using a similar technology here is telehealth nursing care which is useful for handling both non-emergency and emergencies.
The competition in the customer service industry is fierce today, as well as the demand for an immediate response, given how customer retention has become such a crucial issue.
Thankfully, remote monitoring solutions allow non-critical medical conditions to be diagnosed and treated without having to go through an entire facility visit. This serves the dual purpose of providing quality care while also maintaining a steady flow of customers through your waiting rooms.
In addition to improving the quantity of care provided and technology used, RPM also has the ability to improve and streamline the quality of care.
Since RPM is so connected and constantly updated with regard to patient data, it gives clinicians more opportunities to spend more time with their patients vs wading through repetitive tasks for various patients in between appointments.
As a result, this reduces miscommunication and unnecessary complications that might otherwise arise due to specific terms not being universally defined or known access-wide. This has obvious benefits to consumers who are able or willing to engage in RPM’s program or system.
With such devices, nurses can monitor the patient’s oxygen levels, respiration, heart rate, blood glucose, etc. Moreover, even during non-emergency situations, nurses can still measure their patients’ blood pressure or glucose readings. So, just like the nurse call device, these machines help in remote communication, connecting the patient with the nurses and doctors, irrespective of their location.
Electronic Health Records
Electronic Health Records EHR is steadily replacing the older paper filing procedures. It allows healthcare professionals to document every development regarding their patients’ health without errors.
Also, here the information is directly stored in the cloud computing methods that only the pre-assigned authorities can access.
As a result, hospitals can keep their sensitive data and information safe and secure. Also, since these are stored online, anyone with credentials can log in to get access and start offering their services without wasting time.
EHR helps your practice deliver better care to their patients by streamlining access to patient records and information, which can lead to more efficient medical care.
EHR also allows practices to be more efficient in their operations, reduce manual data entry, and provide tools that allow doctors to track the overall health trends of the community they serve.
On a related note, these systems are also helpful because they give you insight into planning ahead for certain procedures or surgeries that might be better performed during certain seasons when patient outcomes tend to improve overall.
As a patient, you can visit the hospital’s intranet and access your electronic health record – featuring lab results, medications, diagnoses, and more.
You can also give your doctor permission to track your progress electronically; this makes preventive care less time-consuming and more convenient for everyone.
All-In-All
Apart from these processes, even cryptography and blockchain are easing privacy apprehensions for healthcare institutions. These gadgets help provide real-time data that can speed up medical facilities.
Also, implementing these technologies will benefit both parties involved. It helps the patients to get seamless and excellent nursing and medical care. On the other hand, such technical advancements help medical professionals provide prompt services to their patients and save millions of lives.
As the field of healthcare continues to flourish and evolve, it is time for nurses to progress ahead to learn more about these technologies to serve the community with appropriate care.
