Technology facilitates care management and provision in people’s homes and other settings
Future developments may allow a wider range of comprehensive care and management to take place at home. For example, technology may allow staff to assess, diagnose, gain specialist advice, access multidisciplinary notes, deliver drug treatments and monitor their effects. This may have implications on staff training.
The technology already exists for expanding the scope of the treatment and care that can safely take place in people’s homes. Examples include some types of chemotherapy, dialysis and echocardiogram (ECG) monitoring. New developments could introduce more fundamental change – telehealth monitoring equipment may allow nurses to assess, diagnose and initiate treatments without visiting the home on every occasion. Such technology can also help patients be more proactive in their own care management.
Using technology in care management has the potential to affect both how nurses operate and how they are trained.
Nurses will need to learn to use new technologies, which may mean more emphasis on technological expertise at the expense of interpersonal skills. Education and training courses will certainly need to change. Nurses will need to work more closely with doctors and social care professionals to ensure the right response at the right time to changes in people’s conditions. Demand for some roles may fall as demand for particular services falls; this is more likely to be apparent over the long term (beyond 2023). However, demand for other roles may increase (with the potential for nurses to be responsible for more care; and with possible increased need for technology specialists).
Using technology to monitor care may mean that the nursing workforce becomes more mobile and based in smaller, more local establishments. Service provision may be affected by differences in access to technology( e.g. broadband speed) and how keen individual organisations are in innovation.
Service providers, commissioners, education providers, etc. therefore need to consider the impact of how using technology for care management at home will affect how nurses are trained and deliver their services.
Sources or references
- Suggested by number of stakeholders in interview and in workshops during CfWI research on nursing.
- From unpublished CfWI report (available on request)
- Queen's Nursing Institute (2012). Smart New World: Using technology to help patients in the home
- Cruickshank J (2010). Healthcare without walls: A framework for delivering telehealth at scale, 2020 Health
- Ball, J. (2011). Data collection and review in the delivery of safe care. Nurs Manag (Harrow) 17(9): 20-22
- Genetics in Nursing & Midwifery Task and Finish Group (2011). Genetics/genomics in nursing and midwifery: Task and Finish Group report to the Nursing and Midwifery Professional Advisory Board. Birmingham, NHS National Genetics Education and Development Centre
- Department of Health, 2011, Whole System Demonstrator Programme: headline findings
- Department of Health, 2011, The future accelerated deployment of mobile solutions in the community setting
Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.
