Assessment 3 Using Technology to Support Teamwork Essay

Using Technology to Support Teamwork

Assessment 3 Using Technology to Support Teamwork Essay

Technology is crucial in all sectors because it supports teamwork and helps managers to accomplish their functions that include staffing, leading, planning, organizing, and controlling. In a nursing setting, the ability of health providers to work as a team help to promote quality and affordability of care services (Levi, 2017). Use of technology also reduces time and costs associated with team work. For example, video conferencing can avail a real -time collaboration and communication among the care providers. Therefore, for any professional to advance in his or her career, technology becomes crucial. In health care, technology improves efficiency in service delivery, help in disease control, and enhance record keeping (Levi, 2017). Project management software can assist the management to monitor and track project progress. Technology enhances efficiency and effectiveness of the company.

The Role of Virtual Modalities Such as Telemedicine and Electronic ICU in Promoting Inter-Professional Collaboration

The intensive care unit, commonly referred to as the I.C.U, is a complex, broad, dynamic and at sometimes a stressful working environment that calls for a continuing exposure to the challenges and complexities of inter-group team functioning. Communication failures, inadequate collaboration initiatives among the team members in the healthcare profession are the leading causes of loss of lives in all healthcare systems (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). Research proves that proper communication and efficient collaboration among professionals can improve results particularly for those patients who are under critical medication. Levels of collaboration among healthcare professionals can go a long way in determining mortality ratios in any healthcare setting. Inter-professional collaboration can be determined by many factors in the workplace including organizational culture, mutual respect, shared goals, and interdependent that shape the future of any corporation in the workplace.

Telemedicine and electronic ICU are proving to be one of the technologies that have revolutionized health care in the 21st century. Telemedicine is critical in promoting coordination in a health care setting because professionals are able to use information technology and telecommunication to deliver clinical health care from a distance. This technology helps employees to work as a team and help to overcome distance barriers hence improving remote access to medical records that would otherwise not be available in distant rural communities. Tele-ICU is another important technology that has transformed care delivery in hospitals. It involves using an off-site command center where a critical care team such as critical care nurses and intensivists are linked with patients (Levi, 2017). They are able to share information among distant ICUs through real-time visual, audio, and electronic means. Care providers in different hospitals are able to coordinate by using live and remote data transmission tools to monitor patients in multiple ICUs. This helps in promoting efficacy and enhancing the cost-effectiveness of health care delivery.

The Role of Virtual Modalities Such as Telemedicine and Electronic ICU in Promoting Improved Patient Safety

The use of telemedicine and electronic ICU technologies promote patient safety by improving medication, enhancing efficiency in service delivery, helping in disease control, and lowering costs through evidence-based practices, clinical analytics, and adoption. The one on one communication through the telemedicine links also enhance a doctor and patient relationship by promoting accessibility and availability of real-time services (Bradshaw & Hultquist, 2016).

The mobile intensive care unit expands the scope and geographic range of physicians. It also enables an individual doctor to consistently monitor several patients on a sustained basis specifically by leveraging on digital algorithmic and a technical-electronic record system. Therefore, there is no doubt that the use of virtual modalities in nursing has fundamentally enhanced the maximum use of professional specialists’ critical thinking skills (Bradshaw & Hultquist, 2016). It also drives a substantial methodological change as to how intensive care unit services are provided. Briefly, the mobile I.C.U has re-engineered how critical health care services are accessed and delivered. It also indicates a paradigm shift for the telemedicine industry, thereby promoting the reach and scope of intensive health care.

How Nurses Can Use Current and Emerging Technologies as Part of an Overall Strategy to Build Teamwork and Collaboration

Nurses play a crucial role in our healthcare system. The design and development of healthcare require nurses to have a broad set of skills specifically in data analytics and information technology. This aids in the delivery of quality healthcare. Nurses work environment can go a long way in impacting on the services and care that nurse’s offer to their patients. It is this fact that nurses must be well equipped with the skills, more so technological for them to be in a position to deliver quality healthcare services. Technology, when applied in health care, can build collaboration among professionals. The move towards collaborative care is not easy. It requires courage, dedication, effort, and capital. Towards this journey, technology can prove to be essential. Even though technology is expensive, it is helpful in nurturing partnerships in the workplace. Quality and effectiveness are the natural characteristics of a sustainable healthcare system. Team based care, which can be promoted by technology, can help in the realization of our health care goals.

How Nurses Can Use Current and Emerging Technologies as Part of an Overall Strategy to Improve Patient Safety

By using over 5,000 medical devices in health care facilities, nurses are able to enhance medical efficiency, quality care, safety, and reduce operational costs. Therefore, they are relevant to boost the ultimate care and safety of the patient. In addition, technologies help nurses to improve productivity by minimizing medical errors that would otherwise happen in the absence of advanced medical tools (Levi, 2017). The emerging technologies also help healthcare givers to define the causes of a given disorder in addition to preparing the best treatment plan. They achieve this through interdisciplinary teamwork and collaboration, which involves combining expertise from different field to come-up with a reliable solution. Nurses are also able to share information remotely, which help them to address a problem in real-times, this will allow them to deliver quality and safe treatment.   

Benefits and Limitations of Using Technology in Nursing Practice

Using technology in nursing has many advantages that include improving efficiency in service delivery, helping in disease control, information sharing, and enhancing record keeping. Technology is also used by nurses to detect any physical changes. One example of technology is pulse oximetry which nurses use to detect reduced oxygenation before symptoms appear.

 However, technologies can also pose errors to service delivery. While information technology holds the key to quality healthcare, it has some fundamental challenges. These include a weak technological design that is inconsistent with human factors, insufficient maintenance policy, and bad technology interface with the sick and inadequate policy for introducing a new technology. Patient care information technology has become significantly complicated thereby substantially transforming the way nursing care delivery is canvased (Poon et al., 2010).

Legal and Ethical Implications of Using Social Media

In the contemporary world, the use of social media in a health care setting has over time raised ethical and legal concerns. Professional misconduct can amount to serious legal implications if a care provider discloses the health status of his or her patient or a colleague to the public through social media postings. This is considered professional negligence and failure to comply with confidentiality ethics (Barry & Hardiker, 2012). In addition, patient privacy must be observed and caregivers should not be tempted to violate this ethical requirement by posting images or status of a patient without informed consent. Failure to comply may lead to legal actions, which eventually frustrate the purpose of interprofessional collaboration.

References

Bradshaw, M., & Hultquist, B. L. (2016). Innovative teaching strategies in nursing and related health professions. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Barry, J., & Hardiker, N. R. (2012). Advancing nursing practice through social media: A global perspective. Online Journal of Issues In Nursing, 17(3), 1-9.

Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Chuang, C. H., Jackson, S. E., & Jiang, Y. (2016). Can knowledge-intensive teamwork be managed? Examining the roles of HRM systems, leadership, and tacit knowledge. Journal of management, 42(2), 524-554.

Levi, D. (2017). Group dynamics for teams (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Poon, E. G., Keohane, C. A., Yoon, C. S., Ditmore, M., Bane, A., Levtzion-Korach, O., … & Churchill, W. W. (2010). Effect of bar-code technology on the safety of medication administration. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(18), 1698-1707.