Analyzing Current Issues and Future Trends in Nursing Profession

This essay explores critical issues and future trends within the nursing profession, focusing on workplace violence and hazards as current challenges and the integration of technology and evolving nursing education as future trends. It assesses how these issues impact the use of healthcare information ...Read More

Running head: CURRENT ISSUES AND FUTURE TRENDS IN NURSING
Current Issues and Future Trends in Nursing
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CURRENT ISSUES AND FUTURE TRENDS IN NURSING 2
Current Issues and Future Trends in Nursing
Introduction
In the contemporary society, there is a great deal of dynamism. If one were to analyse
the changes that have taken place around the globe for the last decade, they could not help but
be amazed by the great transformation that they would discover. The same happens with the
nursing profession and the working environment. Due to the changes that are happening and
that continue to occur, the nursing profession must adjust itself accordingly at each stage of
change (Alligood, 2017). This essay is going to focus on two current issues and two future
trends in the field of nursing. How each issue impacts the use of healthcare information and
management technologies and the influence on current and future nursing practice are going
to be assessed and discussed.
Current Issues
One of the current issues in nursing is work place violence. This implies any form of
violent behaviour perpetrated against nurses in their work environment. Such form of
violence could either be from patients or from the co-workers. To illustrate the intensity of
the issue, let us look at some data from the Occupation Health Safety Network. The data
indicates that between the year 2012 and 20154, there was a great rise in the numbers of cases
of workplace violence. Workplace injury increased for all categories of healthcare
professionals. In addition, these cases nearly doubled for nurses and nurse assistants. The data
further suggests that across 19 states, a total of 10680 cases were reported. This indicates the
number that could be recordable by the administration. The cases occurred between January
2012 and September 2014. This is a high and alarming number and it is evident that
something needs to be done to change the trend.

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The case of workplace violence is likely to create fear of attack to nurses. When the
professional work in an environment where they fear that something bad could happen
anytime, they are likely to be unable to use healthcare information fully to provide the highest
quality care (Butcher, Bulechek, Dochterman and Wagner, 2018). This is because when a
part of the mind is distracted, then it is impossible for one to function optimally. These cases
are also likely to promote more security technologies from the administrations of health care
facilities. In an endeavour to ensure that the nurses and other health care professionals are
safe, it would be necessary to employ new and advanced technology and systems to ensure
that security is kept at maximum. The current effect of the issue is creating fear among the
health workers. In future, this is likely to lead to quitting of jobs by nurses. It is hard for a
person to work where their security is not guaranteed.
The other current issue of concern in nursing is work place hazards. Each day while at
work nurses are exposed to various hazards. These include injuries, exposure to blood borne
pathogens, dermatitis that is related to hand washing and flu (Kelloway, Francis, Gatien and
Belcourt, 2017). Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) indicates that an
approximate of 5.6 million healthcare workers are at risk of being exposed to blood borne
pathogens (Brownson, Deshpande and Gillespie, 2017). The number of injuries experienced
in the health care work environment is also more than those experienced in other industries
(Nieswiadomy and Bailey, 2017). This too is likely to create some fear in the nurses. These
statistics are shocking. As indicated above, when nurses are worried that something bad may
happen to them, their ability to offer the highest possible quality of care is substantially
reduced. The management would be tasked to come up with technologies and ways of
reducing these work place hazards. This way, the nurses would feel more comfortable in the
working environment. consequently, quality of care would improve.

CURRENT ISSUES AND FUTURE TRENDS IN NURSING 4
Future Trends
Integration of technology in to the field of nursing seems an inevitable move in the
future. According to McEwen and Wills (2017), there has been great changes in the
technological realm. For example, most people now own a smartphone or a tablet. There is
also an increased rate in computer literacy (LoBiondo-Wood and Haber, 2017). This would
mean that nurses would have to integrate the new technology in to their operations soon. For
instance, there would be need for more remote care due to the technology. Services such as
maintaining an online database for a client would also be necessary for easier coordination of
care. The technology will bring a revolution in the field of nursing.
Integration of technology is likely to make the work easier for nurses. For instance,
they would be able to learn about the current developments in their area of practice remotely
using their smartphones or computers. This is likely to improve quality of care through use of
the most current information. The process of management is likely to become easier due to
faster and more effective means of communication.
The other future change would be changes in the education of nurses. Due to modern
medicine, people are living for longer. The populations are also increasing and becoming
more diverse (Hamilton, 2017). To effectively deal with these issues, it will be necessary that
the future nurses undergo through vigorous training. For instance, they should be trained
about how to take care of the increasing aging population. The effect of this on use of
healthcare information would be focus on changing population needs. there would also be a
great shift on skills on hoe to interact with diverse cultures and observance of ethics in the
process of care. Regarding the management, it would be very necessary that the
administration endeavour to equip the nurses who are working at this time with skills that are
needed to work effectively in a changing environment. This could be done through such

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means as trainings. To embrace technology, these can be carried out remotely. An interphase
could be created where nurses would interact with the materials of training remotely. This
would be convenient as each nurse would be able to work with their schedules.

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References
Alligood, M. R. (2017). Nursing Theorists and Their Work-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Brownson, R. C., Deshpande, A. D., & Gillespie, K. N. (2017). Evidence-based public
health. Oxford university press.
Butcher, H. K., Blucher, G. M., Dochterman, J. M. M., & Wagner, C. (2018). Nursing
Interventions classification (NIC)-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Hamilton, D. (2017). New standards and framework will map out the future of
nursing. British Journal of Nursing, 26(14), 832-832.
Kelloway, E. K., Francis, L. D., Gatien, B., & Belcourt, M. (2017). Management of
occupational health and safety. Nelson Education.
LoBiondo-Wood, G., & Haber, J. (2017). Nursing Research-E-Book: Methods and Critical
Appraisal for Evidence-Based Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2017). Theoretical basis for nursing. Lippincott Williams &
Wilkins.
Nieswiadomy, R. M., & Bailey, C. (2017). Foundations of nursing research. Pearson.