Medical professions are constantly adapting and developing with new innovations, and nursing is no different, evolving due to its use in bedside nursing care and other forms of nursing support.
Digital applications and medical technology are revolutionizing nursing services in remarkable ways. Patients now have greater access to their own medical records, which has an incredible effect on medical providers and services.
As a nurse, you understand the importance of keeping up with medical and technological developments that affect your job. Below are a few recent advances that are having an immediate effect on nursing proficiency.
Many nurses have chosen online MSN programs to gain graduate degrees to stay abreast of new technologies, provide exceptional patient care, and maintain leadership roles within medicine. Although there are clear advantages of earning an advanced degree through this means, achieving them may also provide nurses with opportunities to advance their careers while continuing working full time.
Wilkes University offers an online Master of Science in Nursing – Nurse Practitioner program to advance your career quickly in less than two years. Focusing on evidence-based patient care, your newly gained skills are sure to become highly valued by employers.
Acknowledging technology combined with strong nursing experience and a master’s degree can give you all of the ingredients for becoming a nursing leader.
Artificial Intelligence has revolutionized every industry imaginable; and its influence in medicine cannot be denied as evidenced by these medical innovations.
Health Tracking Technology
Although health tracking can be beneficial, its potential impact is considerable. Smartwatches, fit bits, health apps, and similar devices allow patients to communicate more directly with their physicians and nurses by tracking and recording important data for medical providers like never before.
When patients and healthcare providers collaborate to collect data for more accurate treatments for issues like heart disease or chronic pain, such as tracking these measures together can yield insights not previously possible.
Health tracking technology enables medical professionals to assess pain levels, sleep patterns and physical responses more accurately so that they may manage health issues more effectively.
Drone and Commercial Medical Deliveries A number of hospitals are currently experimenting with drone delivery technology from one hospital unit to another. Drones offer faster and more direct ways of transporting blood samples, medicine and vaccines than human couriers do.
Owing to their low operating cost and efficient delivery mechanism, drones could potentially have an immense positive effect on rural areas where resources for transporting medical items are limited. Now drones can efficiently carry supplies and other medical needs from central locations to rural hospitals or medical centers quickly and cost effectively.
An experimentation program to provide medical supplies and medicines via drones to homebound patients is underway, which could transform how healthcare providers treat immobile, severely sick patients who struggle to travel to hospitals or healthcare offices.
Robots currently deliver medications to nurses on hospital floors. Once there, nurses need only swipe their badge to access medications designated for their patients.
Automated Patient Sign-Ins Patients no longer need to complete six pages of information when arriving for appointments, saving nurses time for other essential duties and medical providers more effective service from the check-in point. Automated Sign-Ins for Patient Registration/Transit
Predictive analytics has delivered impressive results by helping medical professionals quickly sort through large volumes of patient data to develop an informed care plan and evaluate effectiveness quickly. Predictive analytics significantly shortens wait times to see whether treatment works or a medication has taken hold, giving a much faster sense of efficacy or failure.
Predictive analytics allow doctors to quickly ascertain whether a cancer treatment is working after one session; previously, success could only be measured after several months. Also, predictive analytics help healthcare providers by taking all available patient data and identifying trends such as risk factors for heart disease.
As every patient is unique, predictive analytics can offer invaluable insight into identifying the optimal course of treatment for each person.
Remote patient monitoring offers providers and patients real-time data through remote patient monitoring devices. From digital blood pressure monitors to glucose monitors, these monitors give patients greater understanding and participation in their treatment and care decisions.
Remote patient monitors allow critically ill and those living with chronic health conditions to remain at home when hospital visits or doctor’s offices prove too challenging.
Mobile Medical Imaging
Millions of people lack access to medical imaging due to remote or underserved locations. Mobile medical imaging devices are filling this void; from handheld ultrasound machines that help remote healthcare professionals evaluate, diagnose, and treat conditions remotely to Doppler fetal heart rate monitors that transmit information on fetal heartbeat rates remotely.
Mobile MRI images can take digital pictures of a patient’s body and transfer them directly to an attending medical doctor or nurse for analysis and diagnosis. Mobile X-ray imaging services also go wherever medical professionals need, providing vital information that may lead to treatment plans being prescribed by professionals.
Though mobile imaging devices may seem unnecessary in more developed and densely-populated regions, they can prove essential in areas with limited access to high-tech medical applications.
Artificial Intelligence for Cancer Screening
Unfortunately, cancer often remains undetected until its progression becomes evident; however, artificial intelligence has proven its ability to detect cancer much earlier through imaging data analysis and genetic predisposition testing.
Imaging cancer treatments today is more accurate and faster than ever, leading to better detection, accurate staging of tumors, speedier updates on whether treatments are working and more timely detection when cancer returns.
Artificial intelligence can differentiate between benign lumps and cancerous growths quickly and accurately, providing critical data when dealing with deadly diseases.
3-dimensional Hearts If someone has heart trouble, the general approach is usually taking imaging photos that reveal some but not all information regarding blocked arteries and making decisions about surgery based on these photos. 3D heart models provide doctors and nurses with an accurate representation of where blockage exists within the heart so they can make more accurate diagnoses without resorting to cutting.
3D organ models also make this approach suitable for other surgeries. For instance, 3D printers can fabricate prosthetics faster and with lower manufacturing costs than traditional methods – providing patients with superior products at less time and expense.
Augmented reality (AR), like Google Glass and similar technologies, allows medical professionals to project real-time X-rays, ultrasound scans, and digital scans onto patients’ bodies in real time for improved visualization and to help focus surgeries – particularly brain and spine surgeries. These tools enable surgeons to visualize problems better so that surgery can begin immediately on target areas. These technologies also aid surgeons in pinpointing specific spots for surgery if required – an invaluable asset during brain and spine procedures.
Augmented reality can also help patients see what’s wrong with their bodies and how treatment will impact them physically.
Virtual Rehabilitaton
Rehabilitation often entails repetitive movements until muscles and other body parts return to working normally; virtual rehabilitation uses similar concepts but with an expanded set of exercises for faster recovery.
Not only can this technology enhance exercise repertoires, but its plasticity allows the brain to repair neural pathways more effectively. Feedback provides doctors and nurses with more accurate ways to adjust rehabilitation programmes in order to facilitate faster recoveries.
Next-Generation Vaccines
With technology’s advances in messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), new vaccines for previously incurable diseases have now become possible. Traditional vaccines use dead forms of viruses or diseases to stimulate an immune response while altering genetic codes can take time.
mRNA vaccines utilize genetic coding to instruct your body to produce proteins that target diseases or viruses, leading to faster medications. As research progresses, new vaccines to protect against infectious diseases will soon become reality.
PSMA Targeted Therapy
PSMA is an antigen marker that indicates prostate cancer in men. Since prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among male patients, using this biomarker with PET scan technology helps medical professionals pinpoint where exactly the cancer lies – revolutionizing its detection and speeding treatment to stop its spread faster than ever.
Robot-assisted surgery offers surgeons an alternative, less invasive surgical method than cutting open the patient. Instead, small incisions are made where small robotic instruments with cameras operate inside their body by being controlled from within by the surgeon.
Robotic surgeries offer many advantages over conventional surgeries, including shorter hospitalization periods, minimal to no scarring and reduced risks of infection. Furthermore, their minimal incisions contribute to less blood loss and pain-free recovery from surgery.
Robotic surgery technology helps surgeons navigate more smoothly inside of the body and gain a clearer picture of the issue through camera imaging. Sometimes robotic surgery can even take place at bedside for patient convenience.
Telemedicine has allowed an unprecedented expansion in accessing quality medical care through virtual visits. Both medical providers and their patients agree that telemedicine offers convenient and effective medical care from the convenience of home. Speaking directly to a doctor is less stressful for many; seeing their nurse practitioner, nurse or doctor appear on screen helps lessen this stress factor significantly.
Telemedicine allows those living far from a hospital, doctor or nurse practitioner the chance to be evaluated, diagnosed and given prescription from medical professionals remotely. Virtual visits provide many with access to specialists as well as primary care practitioners.
Convenient Care Locations
Technology has transformed healthcare access, expanding beyond doctor’s offices or emergency rooms as the only avenues of medical treatment. Now with urgent centers and retail clinics staffed by nurse practitioners providing care on-site – making treatment far more accessible. Most convenient care locations don’t even require appointments with providers on site and many offer direct links to pharmacies for easy medication dispensing.
Nursing and medical technology innovations offer numerous advantages. More people can utilize technological advances that give medical providers an early warning system to detect diseases and genetic conditions more rapidly, providing more treatment options to those experiencing health issues earlier.
Many patients appreciate seeing a nurse practitioner for primary care visits because they perceive them to be less intimidating and intimidating than physicians. Furthermore, nurse practitioners typically provide more personalized and tailored attention.
Technology has also opened the doors for more nurses to pursue online graduate degrees at their own leisure, thereby providing greater accessibility of high quality care to more patients who prefer them over doctors.
Patients and healthcare providers alike have much to gain from technology’s transformation of healthcare; it allows healthcare providers to treat more individuals effectively with effective solutions. Technological advances have revolutionized medicine in numerous positive ways for patients.
From homebound patients who can now connect virtually with their medical providers without making an office or hospital trip, to early cancer detection and detection services – this new way of providing high-quality care is making the process simpler for all involved.