Introduction
Nursing education is developed following various guidelines including the AACN’s essentials that provide the different elements and framework for developing the nursing curricula (AACN, 2008). Within the confines of these essentials, nurses are expected to be fully prepared in different nursing practice areas in a bid to address patient needs comprehensively, promote quality care provision, and enhance patient outcomes. This paper is a reflection on the nursing role course to highlight some of the areas that I feel I am competent in as a nursing student.
Course Reflection
This course has been highly useful in preparing me to demonstrate skills in using patient care technologies, information systems, and communication devices that support safe nursing practice. Technology has revolutionized the way nursing care is delivered to patients and this course has provided the essential skills that are needed for the deployment of technology in this practice. According to Elrick (2017), technology will continue shaping nursing practice for quality, safe, and accessible care. As a nursing student, I can now utilize a wide range of technological devices to support my care delivery to patients.
Similarly, I am competent enough to use telecommunication technologies to assist in effective communication in a variety of healthcare settings. Communication in nursing practice plays a central role in the delivery of timely and quality care services. Technology has interconnected and streamlined communication in various healthcare settings, and I am fully conversant with how I could utilize the same. For instance, the introduction of electronic health records (EHR) presents a platform where technology has to be deployed in communication. I am in a position to use various EHR platforms to communicate effectively with team members and patients within the continuum of care.
Additionally, this course has prepared me to apply safeguards and decision-making support tools embedded in patient care technologies and information systems to support a safe practice environment for both patients and healthcare workers. Technology presents various challenges to nursing practice and thus nurses should be conversant with the various safeguards that should be applied when using technology and information systems in patient care. For instance, patient data privacy is a major challenge due to the possibility of exposure to third parties intentionally or unintentionally (Palvia et al., 2015). This course has provided the requisite information concerning how technology should be used to ensure that both ethical and legal issues surrounding patient data are observed.
This course has also been useful in preparing me to evaluate data from all relevant sources, including technology, to inform the delivery of care. Nursing care should be evidence-based to ensure that the best practices that have been tested and proven elsewhere are being applied for the provision of quality care. Therefore, I have to be competent to collect data from various sources and determine which applies to different scenarios as I handle patients in various healthcare settings.
Conclusion
This course has been useful to my nursing practice as a nursing student. Specifically, it has helped me greatly in terms of the use of technology in nursing care. I can now demonstrate skills in using patient care technologies to prove quality care services within the legal and ethical frameworks of technology deployment in nursing. When using technology in patient care, various safeguards should be observed to ensure patient safety and privacy and this course has prepared me for this task. I am now ready to use technology effectively to promote patient care outcomes without compromising and exposing patient data to unauthorized parties.
References
AACN. (2008). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. Web.
Elrick, L. (2017). Technology in nursing: How electronics are changing the field. Web.
Palvia, P., Jacks, T., & Brown, W. (2015). Critical issues in EHR implementation: Provider and vendor perspectives. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 36(36), 707-725.