BSN Capella Nursing Research And Informatics

Running head: EFFECTIVE USE OF PATIENT CARE TECHNOLOGIES Effective use of Patient-Care technologies Sarai

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Artires Capella University Nursing Research and Informatics February 2019 1 EFFECTIVE USE OF PATIENT CARE SERVICES 2 Effective use of Patient-Care technologies The advancement in medical technology has played an essential role in improving the quality medical care across the world. The technology has not only improved the quality of care but also contributed to the management of costs, making medical care affordable to patients. While appreciating the tremendous contributions that various forms of technology have had the provision of care services, there are devastating setbacks that the technologies have created, thereby castigating the benefits of technology to advanced care services. One of the areas of care services that have suffered due to the mistakes in handling the technologies is acute care. Lack of knowledge on the proper use of the technologies has contributed significantly to life-threatening errors by medical practitioners. The development of procedure leading to the effective use of the technologies is critical to the improvement of the quality of acute care services. Sharing of patient information is one of the most critical aspects of medical care technology in an acute care setting. Due to the complexity of the care service in this healthcare sector, there is a need to share information between among the primary care provider, patients, specialists and hospital physicians. As a result of this fact, there is a significant number of people who use the systems. In many situations, there are technology system complications because of mistakes that the uses make when handling the systems. For effective use of technology in acute care services, all the users need to know the procedures and processes applicable to the use of the technologies. Some of the users are not aware of even the most fundamental issues such as personal password management in many instances. The problems with the use of medical technologies in acute care services are that many individuals are using the technologies and not all these users have the same level of knowledge regarding the use of the technologies. Moreover, as technologies evolve, the users of EFFECTIVE USE OF PATIENT CARE SERVICES 3 the new technologies do not get appropriate training on the use of the emerging technologies (Institute for health Improvement, n.d). That makes it incredibly important to make sure that all users of acute cate technologies get competitive training in line with the new technologies. In acute care management, there are many forms of technologies that apply to the processes of enhancing the quality of care services. One of the most recent technological developments that are useful in acute care services is Electronic Health Records (EHR). A wide range of professionals handles acute care patients. Since each professional needs to have the records for different purposes, the introduction of electronic health records is an essential advancement towards better management of the patient records. There are also surgical and survive line technologies that are applicable in acute care management. Smartphones, tablets, and applications are some of the most recent medical care technologies, which apply to acute care services. With these technologies, it is possible for the patient and care providers can keep in touch with different locations and address any medical concern that may arise. Effective management of these technologies is essential in making sure that acute care patients receive services that meet the desired quality levels. Change management is perhaps one of the most challenging tasks that organizations may face with regards to the use of technology. Since there are some forms of technologies that are complex and it is difficult to train the users in a short duration, it behooves the management to create strategies to manage change and align the competencies of the employees to the demands of the new technologies. The initial approach to managing change and make technology useful to the provision of acute care serviced is to conduct continuous training services to users of medical technologies in the organization (California HealthCare Foundation, 2015). Secondly, since technologies are changing each day, it is essential to adjust the training curriculum to reflect the EFFECTIVE USE OF PATIENT CARE SERVICES 4 emerging medical technologies. Continuing to use the old training curriculum in the face of changing technologies is not likely to help in the creation of technological awareness that may be desired. When change comes to any organization, there is always an element of resistance that may derail the entire process of technology implementation. There are many organizations in which employee resistance to change caused massive challenges that ultimately hindered ab effective realization of the objectives of the technologies. One of the primary reasons for these eventualities is the failure of the authorities to align the technologies to the strength and technical competence of the employees (The TIGER Inititive, n.d). Preempting change resistance among professional and putting adequate measures to respond to them is one of the critical roles of change management in an organization. In acute care, the services are so delicate that a rejection of the technologies may have a tremendous effect on the provision of care services, a situation that an organization may not like the line to be exposed to. To address this problem, it is necessary to involve the medical services providers in the process of acquisition of new technologies. Consulting physicians in the choice of technology to be used is essential; in deterring any possible resistance that may arise (National League of Nursing, n.d). Besides, assuring all the personnel that the technology would not inhibit their performance but enhance their effectiveness in care provision is likely to persuade the professionals to embrace the new technologies. The level of technological development in acute cate has been on the rise with each passing day. Currently, the technologies that are applicable in this area of care services has improved tremendously and has been responsible for the improvement of the quality of acute care services. One of the areas in which technology has improved massively is communication EFFECTIVE USE OF PATIENT CARE SERVICES 5 among the parties involved in the provision of care. From patients, primary care providers and another professional, the development of communication technologies such as smartphones, apps, and electronic health records, there is a sufficient level of evidence that the level of technological advancement in acute care services is impressive. The major problem in the use of technologies in the provision of care services is the mismatch between the technologies and users. It is emerging that there is a significant number of technology users who do not have even the most rudimentary understanding of the application of such technologies. For example, many patients do not have an understanding of the manner in which they may use the technologies. Even some of the physicians do not have the operational awareness of technologies. The failure to address these challenges will be catastrophic. Since some of the medical service providers do not know the application or these technologies, they may delay addressing emergencies, and that may put the lives of the patients at risk. Fatalities may result when the management fails to address this technical incompleteness. To address this challenge, it is recommended for the Information Technology department to continually carry out training services to the users of the technologies to make them competent. EFFECTIVE USE OF PATIENT CARE SERVICES References California HealthCare Foundation. (2015). Nursing 2.0: Improving care through technology. Retrieved from http://www.chcf.org/publications/2015/06/nursing-t… Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ihi.org/Pages/default.aspx National League for Nursing. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nln.org/ The TIGER Initiative. (n.d.). Informatics competencies for every practicing nurse: Recommendations from the TIGER Collaborative. Retrieved from http://www.thetigerinitiative.org/docs/TigerReport… 6
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