As with many professions, nursing trends are easily detectable. For a long time now, healthcare systems have revealed trends in nursing that are often times crucial to the way nurses perceive and provide nursing care. Trends in nursing are the patterns that have shaped the profession, guided legislation, and given reason to the way that healthcare facilities operate today. We want to review a few. Many of the current trends in nursing will not surprise you, but the way they will affect nursing down the road might.
How Expensive Healthcare Really is:
One very common trend in nursing is the ridiculous slope at which healthcare costs are continuously rising. As the cost of healthcare increases, patient care is threatened and the financial burden of those with chronic or terminal illnesses becomes unbearable. This is not a new trend in nursing, but one that will affect insurance, provider capabilities, and longevity of the profession overall.
Skills:
An exciting current trend in nursing is the acquisition of skills for more nurses. It is slightly complex, but considering the scope of practice for nurses and the ways that the healthcare team has come to depend on nurses, we are learning more and more skills every day. There is something to be said about gaining more autonomy and a higher level of practice through interdisciplinary skills and experiences.
National Legislation:
The ways that the state and federal governments have changed nursing can account for current trends in nursing and brand new trends in nursing. We will continue to see changes in healthcare from The Affordable Care Act as well as anticipate changes through a possible shift in healthcare. There have been many issues that surround patient care, costs, and treatment options, but furthermore, the role of the nurse and the scope of the nurse’s license are all subject to change. This is at the top of the nursing trends because it very definitively affects nurses of all education backgrounds and job descriptions.
The Nursing Shortage:
The National Nursing shortage has been one of the most talked about trends in nursing in the history of our profession. There have been many initiatives from high-school educational reach out to male nursing campaigns to try and help out with our growing healthcare provider deficit. This has been our current trend in nursing for quite some time now, and we are still at a large loss when it comes to numbers. We simply need and want more nurses in this profession, and with change insurance political policies we will continue to have more people who need healthcare than those who can provide it. We hope to see this nursing trend decrease, but as the baby boomer nurses retire, the future remains unknown.
Nurses Cannot Retire:
This is a new trend in nursing, but due to the latest recession and an increase in insured patients, nurses that are at the age of retirement simply feel like they are unable to. There is a desire for them to stay and work and a growing financial instability for those who have worked and paid their dues.
New Technology:
New technology is a very exciting trend in nursing and one that is not new. We are constantly seeing new technology being created that assists us in our everyday nursing duties. The most memorable being the electronic medical records, and the change from handwritten charting to electronic that widely affected our profession. There have been many more advancements though that should not go unnoticed. The new technology has created a safe patient environment that works with nurses to protect us and our licenses. Technology, if trained and used properly, has been one of the greatest nursing trends when it comes to productivity and patient outcomes.
New Science:
When it comes to trends in nursing, the new scientific discoveries are going to skyrocket over the next few years. It has been incredible to watch unfold, but the latest scientific trends in nursing have led to new pharmaceuticals, new treatment options for various patient populations, new vaccinations, and new diagnoses. It has been exceptional to be able to utilize science to conquer more in the medical field. We can offer better patient care and improve all patient outcomes with the scientific information that we are continuously pouring in. New science also means, new researchers, and the more eyes that we continue to have on our toughest medical obstacles and phenomenon the better!
Patients Need More from Us:
The complexity of our patients has been rapidly increasing and this trend in nursing is one we have to navigate carefully. There are more and more people suffering from comorbidities than ever before, and more is being asked of each and every nurse. The current trend in nursing when it comes to caring for a complex patient is that we are not being asked to take on more of a workload, we are being expected to know how to care for this type of patient as the norm. Nurses are constantly receiving education and in-services used to improve their care, inform policy, and educate on expectations. Our patients are only going to continue to need more from us, so this trend in nursing is not going anywhere.
Advanced Education:
Woohoo! Go nurses! We are seeing this all over the place! As one of the trends in nursing, it is only appropriate to congratulate all of our fellow nurse colleagues on continuing their education. This is the year of the advanced degree in our profession. There are many more opportunities now for nurses with advanced degrees and some facilities are placing pressure on nurses to at least have their BSN. The great news is, the more education we have the more autonomy we have. This particular trend in nursing has led to nurses feeling much more respected in the workplace and our opinions valued immensely. We have paved the way for the next generation of nurses that can push the envelope even further.
If you have noticed another trend in nursing please do not hesitate to email me at kelley@wanderly.us. We want to hear from you!