If you are thinking about getting your Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) as an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), then you need to know that your new degree is incredibly important and you will be putting a lot of work into helping a lot of people. There are a lot of people who find that becoming a DNP is going to help them develop their leadership skills, the skills they need to ensure that they will be able to improve the practices they are working in.
However, learning isn’t the only thing that will help DNP graduates improve their practice. Many DNPs are able to enhance their practice in other ways. The knowledge and skills that a DNP has acquired in their time at school is going to become applicable as the world of technology grows.
The medical world and the world of technology are starting to collide. A.I and various other changes are starting to impact hospitals and caregivers. In order for a DNP to focus on providing the best care for their patients they need to know about the technology. But they don’t just need to know all about what the technology is, but also the best way to ensure that they can take advantage of the technology to make their practice better.
Here are some of the ways that good DNPs can both understand and enhance the technology around them, because the more knowledge they have the more patients they can help!
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How to become a DNP
But before you delve into the world of your new position, you need to know how to become a DNP in the first place. You can get your DNP education online from institutions like Wilkes University, and all the hard work will be worth it when you become a leader. This online Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Wilkes University provides an accelerated educational experience, completed in less than two years. Students will be able to apply scientific inquiry to become practice ready nursing leaders, with a strong understanding of innovation and technology, including nursing informatics and biostatistics.
You will learn to understand and use all nine of the Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice. All of the hard work will make you an amazing leader and it will allow you to get into more advanced positions in your hospital. Additionally, with the DNP degree, you will be able to better advocate for your patients. The leadership roles that you are put in with your DNP degree will ensure that you can help create a healthcare system that will work for everyone.
Now that you know how to get started, let’s look at the benefits of the leadership position. Especially when it comes to new technology and adopting it into your medical practice.
What new technology is there?
The world of medical technology is growing and becoming more impactful by the day, and one of the overarching themes is AI. For starters, AI is being used in predictive analytics, which is going to help improve all of the outcomes of patients. While no two patients, even those with the same illness or injury, are alike, predictive analytics can catch all the trends that make the patients the same.
Predictive analytics can gather all of the data from past patients to suggest a treatment plan with the best course of action. It can also assess the patient’s risk factors for things like heart problems or diabetes as well, which can further enhance treatment. While this plan likely needs to be checked by a human, it can help to allow patients to get access to the best medical care a lot faster.
Predictive analytics also lets both the AI and the healthcare professionals see all of the patient data quickly, and this saves time for everyone involved. AI might be able to detect various problems or make requests for tests before the doctors get a chance too. The constantly changing and updating data allows for you to have some serious flexibility when you become a DNP
You will be able to see everything and can make changes quickly, which can help the patient feel better and ultimately reach the road to health. Plus, it can give doctors and nurses peace of mind because they won’t need to watch the patient like a hawk 24/7, and the computer will alert them if and when changes need to be made.
New tech can increase interprofessional collaboration.
Anyone who has ever been in a hospital on a slow day has seen that those are just as busy as everything else. And the very busy days are extremely busy! When the busy days come calling, every DNP and nursing leader is going to know that making sure the hospital is a well oiled machine is crucial to making sure everyone who operates in the hospital is on the same page.
Interprofessional collaboration is all about having different team members working together to support the patients.
Having multiple people all working with the same patients has quite a lot of benefits for those patients. Because it is more than the various nurses and doctors communicating with one another, and all about that team seeking the best possible outcomes for the patients. If each team member and the discipline they belong to is putting 100% of their work into the patient’s well being, then they will get results.
Additionally, clinical mobility is another factor that is being enhanced by technology. Clinical mobility focuses on the use of various handheld devices by nurses and doctors. These devices allow nurses and doctors to communicate with and update one another about the various events going on at the hospital. Additionally, rather than the point of care being some main center where everyone comes to compare notes, the point of care can be based on the patients.
Benefits of Enhanced User Interfaces
When you become a DNP, you will likely have some say over any new technology that will be used and introduced at the hospital. While you might aim to get the best pieces of technology for your staff, you need to make sure that they have a good user interface. Many outdated systems and even a few modern systems still have user interfaces that are not focused on basic usability. This means that doctors and nurses are constantly fighting the systems that are supposed to be helping them, and that can lead to a lot of problems.
This means that many systems have multiple steps, might be more complicated than they should be, or just might be a pain to use even if they work right! So in order to make sure that your hospital is working well, you need to make sure that any technology you get is going to have a streamlined user interface.
However, some good user interfaces will stop nurses from spending too much time on a screen and then they can spend more time with the patients. Additionally, this will stop a lot of the tedious documentation that can be a side effect of the outdated systems.
Simply stopping the documentation that is needed might be enough to get everyone to switch over to the new system! After all, at the end of the day, no one likes filling out paperwork and that includes people who are working in a hospital!
Benefits of remote patient monitoring and telehealth
Another key aspect of technology that can be seriously advanced is the world of Remote Patient Monitoring. RPM tracks patients and transmits their data in real time from the patient to their healthcare provider. It is perfect for patients who might need something monitored from home, and who might need the services of a hospital. These technology pieces allow your patients to focus on resting and recuperating from home, while also still being in constant contact with the hospital and their caregivers.
RPM allows everyone to have peace of mind and also reduces the number of office visits that people will need to have. Plus, the constant stream of data can prevent hospitalizations and can increase the number of up to date patient interactions. For many DNPs having the ability to see everything about their homebound patients can help keep the nurses up to date, so it is a technology advancement that many are watching closely.
Telehealth also goes hand in hand with both RPM as well as the future of medicine. These virtual visits between the patients and their healthcare providers allow for a deeper connection between both parties. Especially for people who might not be able to get to a hospital in a reasonable amount of time, or who might be blocked by geographical barriers.
Plus, the availability and ease of telehealth visits also help people feel more confident about going to the hospital. They are more likely to listen to the one on one advice and follow it once the call is over. Having properly trained nurses and the right technology will allow your business to support every single customer on each call.
Better technology will help the patients
It can be a lot to learn about how and why you should focus on all these new advances in technology. Even when you become a DNP, it can be very overwhelming. But every single change that you will make in the world of technology is going to improve both your hospital and how your team cares for your patients. Because a lot of these items, such as telehealth, are putting the care of the patients into their own hands.
In order to make sure that your practice has a patient centered care model you need to make sure that you are constantly focusing on your patients. For example, patient centered care isn’t just treating the physical and mental health needs of your patients, but also the emotional and financial needs too. It also empowers the patient with the tools and resources needed to enhance their own care, with your staff simply acting in an advisory role.
However, patients do need to fully understand everything that they are about to go through, and the clinicians must try to make them comfortable and knowledgeable about the different options they have. If you have a hospital that is focused on giving good care through enhancing its technology, you will be able to turn all those resources toward the patient.
Working on your DNP is important
It isn’t just the world of medicine that is changing. When you become a DNP, you will need to deal with all sorts of changes. From new illnesses and injuries to new ways to go about treating them, to new rules and regulations around the hospital, you will also need to take on technology. With the rise of AI and other systems pushing their way into the hospital, you will find that you need to focus on mastering how this tech can help you.
If you don’t rise to the occasion and ensure that you are not only mastering the new technology but are also able to teach your staff how to use it, you will very quickly find yourself in serious trouble. Because other practices are going to be able to embrace the benefits of new technology, and you don’t want to be playing catch up. This means that you really need to focus on learning everything you can when you get your degree.
Take your education and your choice to become a DNP to heart. Once you achieve your degree, you have to start focusing on assuming a leadership role in technology. The faster your practice starts to see benefits, the faster you can speed ahead with the improvements that will keep your practice moving. Then you can help more patients!
