The Future of Nursing

Medscape posted an editorial written by a physician, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, entitled The Nurse Education Imperative.

In the article, she said "As a physician, I have seen the tremendous capabilities of nurses—capabilities that are essential to meeting patient needs. But to ensure that they maximize their contributions to health and health care, nurses will need advanced skills and expertise in care management, interdisciplinary teamwork, problem solving, and more. This makes higher levels of education imperative."

It is an interesting article and certainly worth reading!  It notes that an article published by  AONE in 2012 noted that 52% of employers prefer to hire BSN students but only 32% provide a salary differential. That fact sends a mixed message to all RNs. Advanced education for RNs is a critical component for improving healthcare outcomes. 

Looking into the Future of Education

Now that my research team and I have submitted two grant proposals, it is time to get back on track with this blog.  I read the EDUCAUSE Horizon reports each year.  The 2010 report provides us a glimpse at the future of education.  The authors note that within:

• This year we will have a wide-scale adoption of mobile computing and open content
• Within the next 2-3 years we will adopt electronic textbooks and "simple augmented reality"
• Within 4-5 years we will adopt "guesture based computing" and "visual data analysis"

Clearly mobile computing is evident on our campuses.  Students and faculty alike depend upon netbooks, smartphones, like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android to access email, online course content, and electronic resources.  The worldwide economic crisis has sped up the interest in open content.  Open content is a term for online courses that are freely availalble without charge.

Electronic textbooks have increased popularity.  I am currently using 3 electronic textbooks on my laptop.  Electronic textbooks provide the ability to highlight, make notes, and bookmark similar to a paper version.  The perks are the ability to have electronic booksmarks and to have them anytime I need them and have my laptop (everywhere). Simple augmented reality is a feature on many cell phones, for example, the GPS, a digital camera, and the compass on the iPhone. 

Guesture based computing is a term for operating computers using movement of hands, arms, and/or body.  Guesture based computing is used on popular news shows where the news anchor uses their hands and arms to open or close windows on wide screen televisions to show news and weather reports.  The iPhone uses guestures such as a finger swipe, tap and shake.  The Wii has popularize guesture based computing with software for sports and fitness. 

I am really excited about the emergence of visual data analysis, which will allow us to visualize complex data without having to know complex software.  It should prove especially meaningful for healthcare.  I am looking forward to the day that every nurse will have expertise in the analysis of healthcare data to improve the safety, effectiveness, and quality of care provided.