Analysis of Research & Technology in Nursing Practice
Introduction
Nurses are facing various challenges in the delivery of health care services such as an aging generation and the rise of chronic diseases. One way of improving the quality of care offered by nurse is by leveraging on technology and research. Technology gives nurses new tools to use in diagnosis, treatment, patient monitoring and patient education. Research is the basis of evidence-based care in nursing and improves quality by enhancing the use of safe and effective nursing practices. This essay analyses research and technology in nursing with an emphasis on how nurses should advocate for research, maintain competency in research practices and the future of technology in nursing and research.
Nursing practice is an evidence-based practice in which credible evidence is the basis of clinical decisions and nursing practices. Nursing research is meant to provide evidence to support nursing practice and rationalize interventions (Burns & Grove, 2011). Research informs the future of nursing such as rationalizing nursing interventions in a changing environment. For instance, nurses are increasingly providing care to ageing patients with multiple chronic diseases. Patients are expecting quality and effective services that are culturally relevant and cost effective. To meet these needs, nurses should champion for research. There are various ways nurses can advocate for consumption of nursing research findings. The first way is through funding in health care institutions and in nursing schools. Nurses can advocate for funds by developing strategies which show the efficacy of using evidence-based care in terms of improved patient outcomes and cost benefits to the hospital administration.
Nurses should be lead consumers of nursing research findings. By promoting research funding, nurses will be engaging in research and ultimately become research consumers. Presentation of research affects the consumption of research. Consumption of research by nurses can be promoted through packaging research findings in a nurse’s friendly way such as comparison between various alternative interventions on a specific patient group, use descriptive statistics and graphs to present research findings. I would promote graphical representation of research in discussion groups. This would enhance consumption of research because it will be easy to retrieve and apply nursing research in the clinical setting.
Nurses should also advocate for nursing research through policy changes which embrace the use of evidence-based care and encourages nurses to evaluate the evidence for, or against common nursing practices. Having clear policies such as an ethical framework when using human subjects in research, fosters nursing research by protecting both the participants and the researchers from exploitation. Additionally, nursing research and pilot projects is a good avenue to evaluate new technologies before adopting them. New technology must offer additional advantages over existing technology, be easy for nurses to learn and use and be friendly to the patients before it is adopted and made standard practice.
Maintaining Competency in Research Practices
Nurses should develop and maintain competence in research areas such as conducting both primary and secondary research, interpreting research findings and applying research to relevant areas of nursing practice. Maintaining competency in research is intertwined with a commitment to lifelong learning since the skills and tools needed in research change with time (Applin et al., 2011). Therefore, nurses who seek to develop and maintain competency in research practices should commit to lifelong learning. As a practice nurse, joining a nursing research discussion group is another way of developing and maintaining competency in research areas. In the discussion groups, nurses discuss topics relevant to research such as research methods and interpreting research findings. The group setting can also be used to critique research and to create models for applying research findings in a clinical setting. This will ensure that all nursing units are using evidence-based care.
Another way of developing and maintaining competency in research practices is by conducting literature searches and sharing the findings with colleagues. Conducting literature searches helps develop skills such as formulating of questions in specific nursing areas, conducting database searches, and critiquing published research. Nurses develop communication skills when they share the findings of their literature searches. Performing literature searches and sharing the findings with colleagues has the additional advantage of promoting the consumption of nursing research. Presenting the findings of literature searches to colleagues encourages the comparison of evidence to nursing practices and identifies areas which should be improved in order to meet best practices.
Future of Technology in Nursing and Research
Technology impacts nursing practice by providing new tools to use in the delivery of nursing care. There are various ways in which knowledge for technology and telecommunication has a positive impact on nursing and health care. For starters, nurses can leverage on telecommunication technology in continuous nursing education, enabling them to acquire new skills and competencies while promoting the pre-existing ones. Online classes and forums are important in promoting lifelong learning for nurses (While & Dewsbury, 2011). Telecommunication gives nurses convenient channels to communicate with patients when conducting patient education or answering patient questions.
Knowledge of technology promotes legal compliance in nursing practice. For instance, federal regulations and HIPAA requires health care providers to protect the health records of their patients and store them in electronic format to enable quick sharing (Eastern, 2014). Legal compliance and use of robust technologies to protect patient’s records is part of promoting the quality of care offered. Finally, knowledge of technologies promotes care delivery and improves the quality of health care services. For instance, technologies such as telemetry enable nurses to remotely monitor their patients with notifications when a parameter falls out of range. Continuous patient monitoring is important for geriatric patients and chronically ill patients living at home who are at risk of deteriorating health conditions.
This extends the care offered as nurses are able to reach a wider target population. Technology can also be used to promote research participation by enabling distributed research. Distributed research is when a single research is done by multiple researchers in different geographical areas with the data collected by identical methods and tools and analyzed in a central location. Distributed research provides a wider sample and overcomes the challenge of bias in data collection. The findings of distributed research are applicable in wider areas since they take in to account geographical related factors such as culture which affect the application of research. Additionally, technology enables the communication of research findings to a wider audience.
Conclusion
Nursing practice is changing rapidly due to changes in patient demographics, expectations and how healthcare services are paid for. To keep up with the changes and enhance the quality of care, nurses leverage on research and technology. Nursing research promotes evidence based practice. Nurses can enhance competence in nursing research by joining nursing research groups and conducting literature searches on specific nursing areas and presenting the findings to colleagues. Presenting the findings of literature searches to colleagues and lobbying for policy changes to adopt evidence-based care promotes the consumption of nursing research. Technology is widely applied in nursing to promote legal compliance and enhance care delivery. Legal compliance results from the requirements of HIPAA requirements while enhanced care delivery results from using technology to acquire new skills, communicate with patients, perform diagnosis and monitor patient progress. Nurses should promote research and technology in the clinical setting as a way of improving patient outcomes.
References
Applin, H., Williams, B., Day, R., & Buro, K. (2011). A comparison of competencies between
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Burns, N., & Grove, S. K. (2011). Understanding nursing research: Building an evidence-based practice (5th ed.). Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier Saunders.
Eastern, J. (2014). New HIPAA requirements. Cutis, 93(3), 126-128.
While, A., & Dewsbury, G. (2011). Nursing and information and communication technology
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