Final History of nursing week

There is so much to look forward to with the future of nursing. With advancing technology and changing policies it is hard to imagine what nursing will be like in another ten or twenty years. Some predict the use of artificial intelligence will begin to be common place. I do not agree with people who make this claim. People need someone to connect to. Patients are never in their desired circumstances when they are under our care as health care professionals. If they were, they would not be needing us. As nurses we often provide care that a patient never imagined they would need and there is an intimacy in a patient/provider relationship that is different than any other. People often need to know that while they are in these undesirable situations that they have sympathy, understanding, and love. If the use of artificial intelligence tries to become more than an occasional occurrence,  I believe with my 10+ years of medical background that we will see declines in our patients because of the lack of real human connection.

Some of the other predictions being made are very exciting to me. For instance, there are predictions being made about expanding nursing responsibilities because nurses are cheaper than doctors. The more responsibility that can be passed to nurses the better for the cost of the patients. This only can be with an increase in the education of nurses. This shift can already be seen in many areas. Most hospitals will no longer employ LPNs, instead opting for RN's and RN's with associates degrees are being encouraged to get their bachelors degrees.

Of course no one really knows what the future holds for nursing, but there are some very interesting possibilities and predictions. I guess we won't know until we are there.

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