A career in nursing can be fulfilling, secure, and stimulating. This is one of the many reasons that countless people are leaving their jobs to pursue nursing as a second career. If you’ve decided that this is your career path, you’ve probably started to wonder how you should be preparing to step into the role.
Unfortunately, how you should be preparing isn’t always clear given the constantly evolving nature of the field. However, some critical technical skills can help you develop as a professional and have a more seamless transition into the nurse role.
Here are tech skills to develop before beginning your career in nursing.
Understanding Telehealth
Today, telehealth is a practice that is being adopted by more and more healthcare organizations each passing day. Essentially, telehealth is the practice of providing healthcare through electronic means, such as computers or smartphones.
Some common instances of telehealth include providing patients with instructions over video calls and utilizing apps to communicate with patients.
Given the high chance that you’ll be providing healthcare through electronic means at some point in your career, familiarizing yourself with standard telehealth practices is vital.
Some key telehealth practices include:
- ● Communicating with patients through digital means: Communicating digitally doesn’t always come with all of the same benefits as communicating in person. This being the case, you’ll need to become adept at communicating clearly through digital means, such as on phone calls and through text.
- ● Being familiar with mobile and computer apps: Mobile and computer apps are being adopted by many medical facilities across the country. By being generally familiar with how these function, you’ll be able to quickly learn to use any app no matter what type of facility you work in.
- ● Educating patients about telehealth: Much like telehealth is new to those working in healthcare, it’s also a new process for many patients. This being the case, you’ll have to become adept at explaining telehealth processes to patients on a consistent basis.
By becoming clear about how telehealth functions and the type of care nurses can provide through digital means, you’ll be well prepared for a career in the ever-evolving nursing field.
Understanding Electronic Health Records
While paper files were once common in healthcare facilities across the country, today, new nursing technology is helping all of these processes become digital. As a result, today’s nurses are constantly accessing and changing electronic health records kept on digital databases.
To ensure that you’re able to easily transition into the role of a nurse, it’s vital that you’re familiar with computers and basic computer applications. By coming with a working knowledge of different computer applications, you’ll be able to learn your facility’s electronic health records systems easily and effortlessly.
Understanding Command Centers
Though it may sound like a term from a military operation, command centers are becoming a vital part of healthcare facilities across the country. Essentially, command centers are digital spaces that use a variety of technology, such as artificial intelligence, to help optimize space in medical facilities and move patients around to different locations without harming care.
Command centers help to take some of the burden off of nurses and other healthcare staff and streamline and optimize operations in hospitals. Becoming familiar with how healthcare command center’s function, how to access them, and how to use them is key to being prepared to step into a nursing role in the modern age.
Understanding Smart Beds
Smart beds are having a significant impact on how medical facilities provide care and treatment to patients. These innovations in the healthcare space are hospital beds that have added technology that can perform a variety of functions.
One of the main functions that smart beds have is alerting nurses when patients are moving or engaging in activities. This means that nurses don’t have to worry about checking in periodically and instead can be alerted once their patients begin to rustle.
In addition, smart beds allow patients to have more control over how they move their beds, allowing them to be more comfortable and achieve higher patient satisfaction. As a result, nurses have more time to spend on more meaningful tasks that require their attention.
Understanding IVs and Automated IV Pumps
Being able to safely start an IV is an incredibly important skill for nurses to have. This is because nurses must administer treatments through IVs on a regular basis to a variety of patients.
However, there are also new innovations in this technology to be aware of today. Namely, automated IV pumps now offer more options for nurses to take advantage of when administering treatments intravenously.
Given the widescale adoption of automated IV pumps in healthcare, it’s key that new nurses gain familiarity with these machines. By doing so before pursuing a career in nursing, you’ll be setting yourself up for success and won’t be overwhelmed by this new technology.
Nursing Is Becoming More Technical
While many of the same processes are still the same in nursing as they were decades ago, many are also changing. Specifically, utilizing more innovative technology to perform duties more efficiently and provide patients with better care has become the norm.
As a result of these changes, it’s important that you learn some key technical skills before pursuing a role as a healthcare professional.
0 Comments