Societal Trends in Nursing and Patient Education Paper

Societal Trends in Nursing and Patient Education
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Abstract
Similar to other disciplines of study and practice, nursing education is subject to being influenced by a spectrum of emerging trends in the society's dynamics. The patterns emanate from the society's diverse and vibrant nature, in which case, each of the trends precipitates different concerns and problems. Additionally, the trends result from concerns in the past, which in turn influence the issues that eventually provoke other trends in the future and inform the continuous process of change. Among the trends in the nursing and patient education that have emerged in the recent past include shifts in demographics, consumer education, preventive care, continuous growth in technology, increased access to health care insurance, health information privacy, community nursing and access to nursing education. One of the recent trends that have been central to both the nursing and patient education is the continued expansion and use of Information Communication Technology and the internet in the management of patients at the health care facilities.
Societal Trends in Nursing and Patient Education
The entry of computer technology and its expansion has not only revolutionized the way nursing and patient education was previously being conducted for the better, but has also posed some challenges to the practitioners in its adoption. The traditional methodologies of nursing and patient education have always been pegged at impacting adequate knowledge and skills to nurses, with a sole aim of meeting the health care needs of the society with absolute compassion. With the computer technology and the ever-expanding knowledge in Information Communication Technology, there has been a significant shift in the way the nursing profession used to be conducted in earlier times.
First is the manner in which information technology has influenced the speed of communication among practitioners in the execution of their duties. Nurses and students can communicate valuable information to fellow practitioners through e-mails, text messages and phone calls for appropriate action to be taken over long distances. This ability to communicate extensive information at an almost instant mode has recorded dramatic improvements in the way practitioners conduct their duties. Secondly, technology has enhanced access to textbooks and journal articles as they are published online via websites, and computer-accessible knowledge has turned out to be the potential content for learning resources for both nursing and other standards of practice. However, despite its profound ability to avail information to both nursing and patient education, it is possible for students to get lost in the interesting web of links in their attempt to search for assignments and communicating with other students, and the rest of the world. Moreover, even though updated regularly, the content usually becomes outdated quickly.
The internet presents unlimited information to learners, but they ought to learn the skills and the know-how of navigating it to gain maximum benefits from it, while minimizing the time spent while surfing. It calls upon the nursing student to exercis...