Frankly, a whole lot. From technology to unique skilled nurse requirements to changing demands of certain skill sets. The profession has new and exciting trends that will better the profession and deliver faster, more targeted patient care. Here is a peek into the top 5 nursing trends.
1. Health travel companions
For critical care, it’s not enough to rush someone to a hospital; nursing care is needed in transit as well. And this trend is changing every day. Forget the road ambulance, air ambulances and health travel companionship are fast growing trends. Both requiring inflight nurses.
With globalization, more and more people are traveling to different countries-even continents for medical attention. The reverse is also true; people can get injured in a country different from their own and want to be home to recover in familiar surroundings.
This has created the need to have a travel companion, mainly a nurse to deliver a patient either to their hospital of choice or from a hospital to their homes to be with loved ones.
2. Nursing the nurse
While nurses take care of everyone else, who takes care of them? With all the hours spent on their feet, comfort should not be a privilege but a necessity. In fact, anything that makes it easier for a nurse to do their job diligently and safely is a necessity.
Murseworld has comfort and safety in mind with different styles of men’s nursing shoes. With all the spills and splashes, you have to contend with on shift, these shoes are comfortable and slip resistant. Male nurses can now look good, feel good and nurse good.
3. Bilingual and multilingual nurses will be more in demand
The nursing field is short on nurses, with more retirements than graduations. This has seen a shortage in the field and this gap is expected to increase. The good news is nurses will not be short on employment. For bilingual nurses, even better. While the patient demographics continue to change to reflect more diverse nationalities, so will the demand for nurses who are able to communicate in other languages in addition to English.
4. Artificial intelligence
Pilot projects around the globe are not leaving nursing behind. A robot with AI intelligence was introduced in a nursing home in Toronto to interact and monitor signs of dementia in patients. MIT is testing robots that can do nurse scheduling and patient room allocation. Similarly, in Japan, tests are underway to develop bots that can lift patients and swing them from their beds to the bathroom. This has been a reserve of nurses.
For nurses, if these innovations are successful, this might mean less technical and administrative work and more nursing. With the freed-up schedules, nurses can get more time to talk and offer comfort to patients.
5. More demand for specialists
This is a trend in most professions-nursing included. Registered nurses who specialize in various fields are in higher demand than registered LPN’s. Nurses with expertise in oncology, pediatrics, renal and theater operations are in demand as the need for these specialist skills are well sought after.
These are the main emerging trends in nursing to look out for. The demand for nursing is unlikely to taper off even with the anticipated technologies because these cannot entirely replace some of the intricate roles handled by nursing experts.
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AFP
