Emerging Technologies and
Healthcare Delivery
As new technologies and innovations are adopted in healthcare organizations, it is helpful to
consider how these innovations can impact nursing, support evidence-based practices, and patient
education. Throughout this course, you have been exploring the many ways nursing informatics
enhances and supports nursing practice. In this section, you consider how informatics also supports
evidence-based practices.
Informatics can greatly enhance a nurse’s ability to employ evidence-based practices. Nurses can
use informatics to locate research findings that address a particular health problem or concern.
They can also use those findings to educate patients and to improve patient care at the bedside.
Nurse informaticists can also use informatics tools to support EBP. For example, using the correct
tools, a nurse informaticist could research best practices for a certain procedure or health issue and
determine what other organizations have tried compared to the current research and recommend
best practices to prevent adverse events.
Informatics tools, such as clinical decision support systems also can enhance the application of
evidence-based practices by providing up-to-date information entered into the system’s database,
which is then made available to nurses at the bedside.
As health technologies, research, procedures, and innovations continually change and grow, it is
important for all nurses to have a least a basic ability to explore databases and become familiar with
research available in their specialty area. For this reason, more schools of nursing are making
informatics competencies a part of all nursing programs. Nurses who take advantage of these
opportunities and become competent in the use of evidence-based practices will be major assets to
their organizations, will feel more confident in their abilities, and provide a higher quality of patient
care.
As cutting-edge information and healthcare technologies continue to emerge, it is an exciting time to
be a nurse. New technologies have the potential to help nurses perform their duties faster and with
greater accuracy and to employ evidence-based practices, thus promoting a greater level of patient
safety. Emerging technologies that will be discussed in this section include:
Simulators/Simulations
Robotics
Nanotechnology
M-health
Wearable devices
Portable and Cloud Data Storage
Simulators and Simulation
Innovations in healthcare technologies include the improvement and use of various types of
simulators and simulation in education and training of healthcare professionals. As noted,
healthcare professionals need to possess informatics knowledge and skills to improve patient safety
and quality of care. Studies show that simulation can help nurses gain the necessary preparation by
allowing them to use informatics in an authentic, realistic learning context. Simulations can also
involve using humans (often paid actors). Simulators are mechanical or electronic devices. Both
