A Look at the Direction of Nursing Careers

by Sophie Peters

What is the future of nursing careers? Predictions are that in 10 or 20 years, it will look nothing like it does today! With new technologies and drugs, changes in insurance and health care policies, and the shortage in nurses, the profession will have to reinvest itself. Many nursing functions will be automated. For example, documentation and updating patient records, smart beds to monitor vital signs, bar codes, and automatic medicine carts could reduce the time and errors in dispensing medications, and voice-activated technology would eliminate the need to constantly write things down. Other nursing task such as serving meals will be taken over by aides. This would give nurses more time to provide a human touch to their patients.

As a result of nursing shortages, healthcare facilities will be forced to use their nurses judiciously. Nurses will spend more time at the bedside as educators and care coordinators to refocus on the patient. With the lengths of patient stays shortening, nurses will have to make the best use of a shrinking amount of time hospital stays. Nurses will also spend more time in administration and supervision positions. They will need to know how to access knowledge and transfer it to the patient and their loved ones.

The diversity of the healthcare workforce is also likely to increase as technology also continues to advance. This means that more emphasis will also need to be placed on increasing the teaching nursing staff through recruitment and retention in order to relieve the strain and shortage of faculty members. Further, loans and financial scholarships at the graduate level, (both PhD and Masters) will also need to be made available so as to encouraged already qualified medical and healthcare professionals to consider the teaching profession. In addition, medical programs will also have to be willing to offer higher compensation to the staff in order to encourage them to stay.

As healthcare trends stand today, it is safe to assume that if the the nursing shortage persists, long-term stays and hospital admissions may have to be reserved for the patients that need it most. Thus, the number of outpatients will likely increases as will the need for more home-healthcare nursing professionals. It is also conceivable that nurses will play a larger role in insurance agencies, health consulting firms, and healthcare technology and software development companies. Nurses will also be involved more deeply with community health and population-based health work. Their responsibilities will include identifying health risks and setting up healthcare priorities for populations at higher risk. Healthcare professionals will also be involved in community education, and working with healthcare institutions and insurance agencies to develop healthcare programs that are designed to promote health and save costs for both the patients and their healthcare providers.

Nurse practitioners have a foreseeable bright future in geriatrics and gerontology. As the baby boom generation gets closer to retirement age, nurses will find themselves in new roles. For those medical professionals who are not ready to retire, they may find themselves in consulting roles for as example health care providers in retirement homes, because they themselves would have a good understanding of the needs of this generation

As medical research and technology advances, nurses will focus considerably on prevention rather than treatment. Further, medical drugs that target diseases before they start, and identifying risks will also enhance preventative healthcare. This will require patient to take a more active role in learning about taking better care of themselves to prevent illness. This healthcare shortage and the cost of healthcare will also add pressure to the healthcare system to concentrate prevention and wellness models of care.

Regardless of what the future of healthcare holds, nurses and other medical professional will need to be prepared for the expanding and changing roles. They will need to remain lifelong learners in order to remain up-to-date with the medical field. As you can imagine, that comes easier when one is passionate about their profession.

About the Author:

Sophie Peters edits for a site with info on health informatics degree programs and alternative health degree programs. Look up more info from this distance learning degree resource.