The main aim of nursing education will always be constant where nurses prepare the various needs of patients, act as leaders and an advanced science that is beneficial to patients, maintain a health professional capacity to ensure safe delivery and quality care of patients. Simultaneously, nursing education requires a transformation in various ways to prepare graduates to work hand in hand with other professionals in the health industry while applying the health care system. Nurses in the entry-level are required to manage a smooth transition from the theoretic perspective of academic learning to the various practical environments especially in public and community health setting (National League for Nursing, 2007).
Through the advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), graduates are required to go through a program that will assist in the preparation of assuming roles as primary care, long-term care, special practices and acute care. Technology is an aspect that seems to be essential in the day to day activities all over the world. As years go by, human beings have become dependent on it, and it is seen to affect various industries (National League of Nursing, 2007). Healthcare and nursing are one of the industries that are significantly affected by the development of technology. Technology has been integrated into the health sector, and it has become a critical factor in health care education.
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Nursing graduates are required to be conversant with the use of technology to improve the services they provide to patients (National League of Nursing, 2007). Technology in the health sector has brought about the question of whether technology has improved health education or it has pushed away from the nursing students. The paper is going to discuss the importance of technology to nursing education while debating on whether it has also driven away nursing students.
Technology in healthcare is seen through the healthcare system in information technology. If one looks back on how healthcare was founded thirty years ago in comparison with currently, it is understood that there has been a significant transformation due to technology. There was the need for improvement due to the evolving of diseases that needed advanced medical attention. As years go by technology is also seen to improve significantly, therefore, creating a solution to the developed infections of the decade where individual computers were introduced. It seems that technology development seen in clinical applications are critical in healthcare and will be the trend continues in the future. In the early 1970’s, healthcare information technology rose together with the beginning of computers. The idea was not broadly accepted by many in the industry until the end (Pravikoff, Tanner & Pierce, 2005).
Despite the computer advancement experienced, clinical patient care was not considered until after the twenty-first century. Individual departments started to apply clinical applications to improve the speed of their processes (Pravikoff, Tanner & Pierce, 2005). It is seen to have assisted in promoting the type of services they provide. Automated systems that were started applied in laboratory, radiology and pharmacy. Application of technology then spread and was adopted in the various clinical departments. Information technology is changing at a rapid rate and seems to be affecting multiple industries while creating opportunities and challenges.
Development of technology in the healthcare is seen to have encouraged the development of new training tools used in healthcare education. Due to technology, there is the existence of simulation training where qualified professionals who are new become experts and practice courageously once they meet their clients for the first time. It is similar to the way airline pilots confidently fly aero-planes after training using flight simulations. Gaining of the student experience through practice is slowly diminishing due to the safety of patients and ethical explanations (McNeil et al., 2003). High demand for clinical placement and limited supervisors while practicing is the main reasons as to why there has been a reduction in opportunities to practice. Due to such shortage, there was a need to get an alternative to how the experience may be gained in nursing education (McNeil et al., 2003).
Training simulations have enabled gaining of a learning experience in a safe environment and are encouraged in various institutions through the institute of medicine’s report of 1999. It is inspired because of the secure environment it provides and at the same time students gain experience in the various disciplines in medicine (Brown, 2008). Due to technology, there are new tools used in the health industry, and therefore they require the users to undergo proper training and teaching to operate the tools smoothly. The trained students need an assessment to ensure that they are efficient which is done through training simulations (Brown, 2008).
Technological methods that are seen to beneficial to the health industry tend to be included in the school syllabus of healthcare organizations, institutes of nursing and medical schools. Due to the effectiveness of the technology, there has been a vast improvement in the healthcare sector with cures being developed and proper care is given to patients (George et al., 2010). Nursing students have seen the benefits of technology because they can gain updated education and training according to the current tools in the healthcare industry. Some institutions have incorporated the study of new technologies used in the industry in their curricula in a way that a nurse graduating from the institution is conversant with the technologies used (George et al., 2010).
Another way technology is used in nursing education is during training by the instructors where they use technology as a tool to disseminate information. One of the ways of transferring the information is through call and video conferencing. There are classes where instructors are not readily available due to geographical distance, and therefore they carry out their courses through conferencing. The lecturer will use a telephone or computer to communicate with the students (Grady, 2011). Thus, one can say technology has played an enormous role in the nursing education through providing a platform where instructors can pass their information easily despite their geographical location. The can now teach and give assignments without having to be near physically. There has been a shortage of nursing instructors over the years, and therefore the few available instructors face the dilemma of geographical locations. Technology has now filled that gap and has enabled both students and instructors to become flexible and manage to conduct their classes regardless of the distance (Grady, 2011).
There is the existence of virtual classroom that is used to transfer didactic lectures by clinical instructors that assist in communication among students, faculty and clinical sites preceptors. They also conduct a visit to clinical sites to evaluate the performance of students and effectiveness of clinical instructors (Grady, 2011). There are also conferences on patient multidisciplinary that take place through the use of video conferencing technology. The technology is seen to defy geographical location distance and thus to enable large numbers of people to attend the academic conference that may be educated on essential matters of healthcare. According to Grady, distance learning efficiency relies on the ability of the instructor to come up with strategies that are engaging. Video conferencing provides involvement in an environment and integration of situations and information relayed (Grady, 2011).
Despite the fact that technology is essential and helpful in promoting nursing education, there are also challenges faced. Firstly, is that technology keeps evolving at a rapid rate. Technology keeps changing with improvements made therefore many nurses find it hard to keep up with the change leading to shortages on the number of nurses who are up to date with the tools. It means that nurses have to undergo training often to update their knowledge of the technologies used (Kenny, 2002). Secondly is that technology being expensive to purchase therefore many healthcare institutions may lack the capacity to have all tools used in nursing. Due to the change in technology, it is hard for the institutions to keep purchasing technology as it changes. Lastly is the fact that technology has made work easier and therefore taken over some duties that were carried out by nurse thus reducing their need. Technology has begun replacing manpower therefore reducing the number of nurses required in a hospital as compared to years back where more nurses were needed due to demand (Kenny, 2002).
In conclusion, technology is vital to nursing education as compared to pushing students away. The advantages are more and valid for they have assisted in improving the type of care given to patients (Kenny, 2002). Technology is seen to have changed the way nursing education takes place it has given an opportunity to many nursing students to gain information. Training simulations have assisted nursing students to achieve practical experience without exposing patients to harm. They can gain instruction from their instructors despite their geographical distance. Therefore, it is seen that as much as there are challenges the advantages have made more impact as compared to the disadvantages.
References
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George, L. E., Davidson, L. J., Serapiglia, C. P., Barla, S., & Thotakura, A. (2010). Technology in nursing education: a study of PDA use by students. Journal of Professional Nursing , 26 (6), 371-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2010.08.001
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Kenny, A. (2002). Online learning: enhancing nurse education? Journal of Advanced Nursing , 38 (2), 127-135. 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2002.02156.x
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National League of Nursing. (2007). Nurse educator competencies: Creating an evidence-based practice for nurse educators. New York, NY: National League of Nursing.
Pravikoff, D. S., Tanner, A. B., & Pierce, S. T. (2005). Readiness of US Nurses for Evidence Based Practice: Many don’t understand or value research and have had little or no training to help them find evidence on which to base their practice. AJN The American Journal of Nursing , 105 (9), 40-51.
