Data, Information, Hardware and Software (Essay Sample)

Your Future Career: Data, Information, Hardware and Software
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Section I
Nursing is a career that involves offering care to the patients and ensuring that they are restored back to normal health by providing support and comfort. Nurses cannot work alone as they form part of a team. This team consists of doctors, nutritionists and even physiotherapist. Nurses work in an array of settings but they are mostly found in the hospitals where they serve patients according to their specialized training.
Data collection and documentation is one of the core elements in the nursing career. A lot of data is collected with regard to the patients that the nurses are offering care to, such information includes their biographic data which comprises of the name, age, gender, occupation, religious affiliations, ethnicity, language, locality, and even nationality. The nurses go further to gather data that is collected during examination of the patient, such data comprises of the sounds heard during inspection, percussion, palpation, and auscultation. They also gather data with regard to the patient’s history, this may include chief complaints the patient might have, history of the present health concerns, family health history, review of body systems for the present health problems, and medical and surgical history data.
The data collected will be processed by the nurses thus enabling them to know what care will be most befitting for the patient as information with regard to the diagnosis will be now available. Further processing of the collected data will enable the nurses to come up with information concerning the appropriate type of equipment and medication that will be needed in providing care to that patient.
Section II
In the past few years the nursing profession has developed rapidly technologically to the point that nurses are not only required to know how to care for their patients but also know how to utilize technology appropriately and safely. In order to ensure much faster and efficient delivery of nursing care there is the need to make use of certain hardware and software elements. The use of desktops in the hospital setting by the nurse to order medication, schedule staff, and documentation with the help of electronic health records (EHR). The nurses are also required to keep themselves updated with the current trends in patient care delivery thus the need to make use of laptops that will enable them to access the information through the internet.
Nurses are supposed to carry with them smartphones that will enable them to receive calls from their fellow nurses and doctors with regard to patients’ welfare. These smartphones also offer platforms over which they will be able to access and verify any information they are not sure o via the internet. Tablets are also a necessity in the home setting of a nurse. At home they enable the nurses to browse necessary nursing information. In the hospital the tablets can be used as input devices for patients’ data. The use of printers as output devices for printing prescriptions for patients. Use of other technology such as monitors, for example, fetal monitors that show the heart rate of a baby, and heart monitors that show the electrical patterns and rhythms of the heartADDIN CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "DOI" : "10.1111/j.1365-2702.2008.02647.x", "ISBN" : "1365-2702", "ISSN" : "09621067", "PMID" : "19220607", "abstract" : "AIMS: One aim was to compare the quality and comprehensiveness in nursing documentation of pressure ulcers before and after implementation of an electronic health record in a hospital setting. Another aim was to investigate the use of preformulated templates for pressure ulcer recording in the electronic health record. BACKGROUND: With the possibilities of the electronic health record to provide information and give accurate and reliable feedback to the healthcare organisation, it is of high priority to develop standardised documentation practices for various areas of care (e.g. such as pressure ulcer care). DESIGN: A cross-sectional retrospective review of health records. METHODS: Three departments in a Swedish university hospital participated. In 2002, there were 413 patients, including 59 paper-based records identified with notes on pressure ulcers and in 2006, 343 patients, including 71 electronic health records with pressure ulcer recording. Recorded data on pressure ulcers were retrospectively reviewed. Results. Significantly more patient records showed notes of pressure ulcer grade (p < 0.001), size (p = 0.004), risk assessment (p = 0.002), nursing history (p = 0.040), nursing diagnoses (p < 0.001), nursing goals (p < 0.001) and nursing outcomes (p = 0.016) in 2006 than in 2002. One third of the recordings used preformulated templates. CONCLUSIONS: Although there were significant improvements in pressure ulcer recording after the change t...