Nursing is a very hands-on role, and it is an industry that requires face-to-face contact. Without the face-to-face contact, patients get from a nurse, it would not be such a caring and compassionate industry. Of course, with time, nursing needs to adapt and embrace digital health as much as any area within the healthcare industry, but how can digital health impact nursing roles? And how can it be beneficial to the care given and received by patients? Every industry needs to embrace new technologies and new ways of working, but can digital health be successfully and easily synchronized within the nursing and healthcare industry?

The Future of Digital Health

Changing daily, the future of digital health looks positive, and it looks healthy. With developments in software and apps constantly coming into play, the nursing and healthcare industry has to keep up. Keeping up with new improvements and enhancements is financially the right move for the industry to make as it can ensure that operations and patient care are handled in the most efficient and effective manner. Digital health provides a solution that the healthcare and nursing industry needs, and as different software and apps can be adapted to suit the user, it is time that digital health is embraced at all levels.

Improvement and Enhancements

Digital health can improve and enhance the care that patients receive, and this can only be seen as something that is positive and long overdue. Digital health apps can track patient aftercare, and they can inform professionals such as doctors and consultants when data needs looking at in further detail. Being able to rely on and utilize data from apps and software will ensure that healthcare professionals at all levels can provide a more tailored and personalized approach. With ever-growing patient numbers, solutions are needed, and they are needed quickly. When software and apps are used, healthcare professionals can ensure that growing patient numbers are catered for and cared for. If digital health is not embraced, then improvements and enhancements cannot be made easily and quickly to the processes and procedures undertaken by healthcare professionals.

Why Nursing Needs to Focus on Implementing Digital Health Apps and Software

Nursing is a hands-on role and profession, and it is important that digital health apps and software are readily available and readily used. Apps and software should be embraced in one-off care and in regular patient care to ensure that the quality of care is continually improved and that standards of care are maintained. With shortages in nursing, nurses are often spread too thin and over too many patients. When responsibilities or duties are split between several professionals, in this case, nurses, discrepancies and inaccuracies can commonly occur, especially if set processes and procedures are not in place. Utilizing apps freely between professionals on the frontline who are giving care can ensure that patients receive quality care at all times, no matter who is on duty.

Focusing on Patient Care

When patients are put first and foremost, every professional can ensure that high standards are met and that quality of care is never compromised. If patients are recovering from an operation, illness, or accident, they need consistency to ensure a swift recovery. By utilizing apps or software that is directly monitoring the patient, changes can be quickly seen by healthcare professionals, and improvements or changes to the care they are given can be implemented. Apps that are used within a healthcare scenario can also be adapted and used when the patient is discharged and when they are in their own homes. Having patients connected to apps and to software can allow professionals to monitor conditions and recovery even from afar. When professionals can monitor and track conditions without having to even see a patient, costs can be cut and additional savings can be made. Usually, cost-cutting is associated with poorer patient care, but not in this situation.

Nursing Careers and the Progression of a Nurse

With nursing still needing that personal, hands-on, and face-to-face approach, the introduction of software and apps can only be seen as a positive move. Nurses are short on time, and the use of apps to help them perform their role more effectively and efficiently may just help boost the number of new nurses entering the industry. Student nurses and those studying for further nursing programs, like those studying at Carson-Newman University, can often be put off by the large workloads that nurses have to face. Large volumes of paperwork and never-ending form filling can put off even the best candidates. Utilizing apps, data, and software and focusing on a more paperless approach can reassure new nurses and those thinking about entering the industry. The numbers of nursing staff needed are increasing, but the number of applicants is not rising sufficiently to keep up with demand. To close the gaps and ensure that quality of care is maintained and sustained across patient care, digital health must play a prominent role in nursing careers and the progression of nurses.

Swift Implementation and Introduction

Digital health has to be readily available, and it has to be quickly implemented and introduced. Waiting to implement health apps and software at any level could have both cost and care implications, which could potentially take years to recover from. Swift implementation and usage could help improve patient care, and it could improve the image of the healthcare industry. If swift adoption is not taken up, or it is taken up sporadically, then questions about the quality of data and information and usability of this data and information may be questioned. Digital health has to be embraced wholly by authorities, medical providers, and healthcare professionals at all levels if it is to continually succeed and grow. Patients also need to see apps and software in use; they need to build up their knowledge and awareness so that from then onwards, they can see that digital health is the way to positively move forwards.