Telenursing Essay
The use of information technology in the health care sector has found a wide spectrum of applications. One of the sectors that has hugely benefited in the application of IT is the nursing sector. Nurses in most of the healthcare facilities in the Country are using Information systems to provide very much needed services to patients who would otherwise not access them.
One of the areas that have found use of Information technology is the use of telenursing in diagnosis and teleconsultation whereby the nurses do not have to travel to the patient or vice versa but rather do the diagnosis remotely. By interviewing the patient online, the nurses are able to determine the disease the patient is suffering from and prescribe medication where possible. Further appointments can be arranged through the same avenue (Loretta et. al., 2007).
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Another use of telenursing is in the intensive care units in the health facilities. Nurses have adopted the use of telemedicine to provide high quality and well researched solutions to patients who are critically ill. By provision of critical care to the patients by the nurses, they help to enhance the patient care, safety and monitoring of how the patients are doing. Tele-intensive care information systems have transformed how critical care nursing services are offered by providing the most critical services through technology (Williams’s et. al., 2012).
The next very important application of telenursing is in the monitoring of patients with chronic diseases. The information system allows nurses to access information in a central database through the internet. The patients can send their symptoms to the doctors through the main server and be advised on the appropriate drugs to use. This system has worked well in the management of Diabetes Mellitus in remote patients. By using telenursing services, the patients were able to bring their conditions under control (Kawaguchi, et. al., 2004).
Information technology finds a lot of applications in today’s health-care sector. The adoption of IT is the future and should be implemented for effective and efficient provision of healthcare services. This will help in the reduction of the death rates witnessed due to gaps in the provision of critical healthcare services.
References
Williams et. al. (2012). Tele-ICU Enhancements. Telenursing in the Intensive Care Unit: Transforming Nursing Practice. Vol. 32 Issue 6, p62. Retrieved from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/83835228/tele-icu-enhancements-telenursing-intensive-care-unit-transforming-nursing-practice
Loretta et. al. (2007). Chapter 48: Patient Safety, Telenursing, and Telehealth. NCBI. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2687/
Kawaguchi, et. al. (2004). Development of a telenursing system for patients with chronic conditions. SAGE Publications. vol. 10 no. 4 239-244. Retrieved from http://jtt.sagepub.com/content/10/4/239.abstract