What does the future look like for nursing careers? It is predicted that in the next ten to twenty years, things might be quite different from how they currently stand. As new technologies, treatments and drugs, shifts in health care policies, insurance policies, limited healthcare professionals especially nurses, indications are that the health care profession may have to reinvent itself. For instance, with advancements in technology, many functions could be automated. For instance, patient records and documentation, smart beds that can monitor patients vital signs, use of bar codes, and automated medicine carts could conceivably be used to save time and reduce errors in medication dispensing. Also voice-activated technologies would cut down the need to write down many things. Tasks such as serving meals could be taken taken over by trained aides to free up nurses to provide a human touch to their patients.
Due to nursing shortages, hospitals and other healthcare institutions have to use their staff more judiciously. Nurses will be tasked with spending more time at the bedside to serve as educators and care coordinators. This will refocus their role with their patients. As the lengths of hospital stays getting shorter due to medical costs, nurses must make most use of the time they spend with patients. Nurses will also work in more administrative roles and supervising positions. Given that, they will need to know how to access and retrieve knowledge and information in order to share it with their patients and their families.
The changes in technology will possibly attract more men and minorities into the profession. Greater emphasis must be placed on supporting teaching careers and recruiting educators from diverse cultural backgrounds to relieve the serious shortage of nursing school faculty. Therefore, more loans and scholarships for master’s and PhDs would also have to be in place, and the colleges would have to pay the instructors more money.
As far as trends go, if the nursing stuff shortage continues, long-term hospital stays may have to be reserved mainly for the very ill. This then means that the number of outpatients will increase, and subsequently the need for more home health nurses. Nurses will also serve more important roles in insurance companies, healthcare technology and software companies, and consulting agencies. In the future, nurses will also be involved more in community health and population-based healthcare. Their jobs will include risk identification and establishing priorities for at-risk populations. These healthcare workers will also serve as community educators who also work with insurance companies and healthcare providers to develop programs aimed at promoting health and saving the patient money and reducing cost for the health care institutions.
Medical personnel who work in gerontology and geriatrics, for example nurse practitioners also face what would be considered a bright future in terms of their careers. With people in the baby boom generation reaching retirement medical professionals will be required to focus on patients in this generational group. Further, nurses who are also baby boomers might not be ready to retire and may find themselves in a role of consulting. They would serve as healthcare providers who they themselves understand the needs of their patients better.
As technology and research progresses, nurses would focus more on preventing the illnesses rather than treatment. Also, drugs designed for healthcare that targets diseases before they start, and identifying risks for those diseases will enhance preventive care. This means that people are going to have to learn to take care of themselves more. The nursing shortage and rising health care costs will also put pressure on the health care system to change from an illness model to a wellness and prevention model.
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.
Sophia Peters manages Public Health Degrees site and Healthcare Degrees. Visit these sites to explore other health careers.
