What won't nursing/medicine be doing in 10 years?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

Inspired by my love of the "what we used to do" threads.

What do you guys think that we -- nursing or medicine or anything else health related -- won't be doing in ten years? Or, heck, even twenty? Thirty?

What is your unit not doing now that used to be done? etc. Progress!

For instance, I work on a burn unit and burn medicine has massively progressed since the Iraq War and continuing into Afghanistan. No more daily tanks. In fact, tanking in general is frowned upon unless necessary or wanted (!) by the patient. We're also pulling away from silver-based dressings in an inpatient setting. Latest studies suggest that they don't help with healing or infection prevention. We still use them for long-acting dressings but there really isn't another option.

Also general nursing stuff -- my hospital recently tried to implement an E-ICU but it just didn't work. Is this the wave of the future?

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I suspect a more complete takeover of computerized charting and meds with all the auditing and compiling of data that goes with it.

Big brother is watching, and I suspect a more quantitative outlook will become more prominent.

I have a collection of vintage nursing books. The matron or nursing superintendant was a character who was well known to take daily inspections of all the floors. Evaluating patient care did not involve flipping through charts, it involved getting close to patients, talking to them, looking at the environment and conditions.

I forsee a continued distance put between management and patients and nurses. Gathering numerical data on days without bedsores, and hospital acquired infections makes a numerical assessment that can be done with computers and you never need see a patient.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

OK, I'll play - in 10 years, changes will include:

- spending just a fraction of our time on detailed documentation; instead, we'll be working with voice recognition, coupled with video to document all of our activities. Monitoring equipment provides direct 'feeds' to documentation

- quick bedside dx equipment is used to continuously monitor all the common lab values. Since lab work is no longer a "revenue source", this process is universally accepted & much more efficient than "ordering routine lab tests"

- manually lifting & moving patients is no longer permitted; clear heads & common sense has finally prevailed.

- Staffing patterns have been adapted to actual patient needs so the mindless compliance to an all 12-hour shift environment is long gone

- ventilator adjustments & hemodynamic titration is no longer a manual process - artificial intelligence guides algorithms to ensure support for specific patient outcomes; nurses only have to monitor, troubleshoot & re-program for new outcomes as necessary

- passwords have been replaced with bio-authentication methods (retinal scan, fingerprint or ?)

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Specializes in Emergency, Haematology/Oncology.

I too love reflecting on how things used to be and I've watched the steady deterioration of holistic nursing care and the subsequent role of "nursing" becoming a rapid, task orientated one, a push for maximum efficiency / turnover and minimal contact with patients. Gone are the days of having time to move beyond clinical duties and maybe read to the blind elderly man, provide valuable and empowering education or chat with your colleagues. I am saddened that the powers that be will never appreciate the value of nurses having TIME to actually LOOK AFTER people. The patient who feels as if they were well cared for does not go home anxious, is well educated about discharge/preventative care and does not need to be re-admitted because they were pushed out the door. Injury and illness prevention will be a thing of the past as there is no short term vote winning financial benefit, already in my neck of the woods, vital community sexual health clinics and other services are being dismembered. Having the time to genuinely care for a sick person of course can't be quantified and these days it seems to only be about numbers and of course, money.

Believe it or not, with the new "physician frontloading" system in my ER, a written nursing assessment has become almost obsolete. I would say that about 60% of the time the intern sees the patient the minute they arrive, so a "nursing assessment" has become "refer to medical officer notes". I believe nursing workload will increase at the expense of autonomous practice as our litigation focussed / instant gratification / entitled society demands specialist input for minor issues. We will not be able to assess a wound and select an appropriate dressing, we will follow a strict pathway for everything right down to how to wash someone with appropriate boxes to tick. I think nursing judgement will all but be removed from day to day patient care. Fortunately, I also believe that those of us who love nursing will perhaps figure out a way to bring things full circle. Hmmm, now I will try and think of something more positive to write!

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OK, I'll play - in 10 years, changes will include:

- spending just a fraction of our time on detailed documentation; instead, we'll be working with voice recognition, coupled with video to document all of our activities. Monitoring equipment provides direct 'feeds' to documentation

- quick bedside dx equipment is used to continuously monitor all the common lab values. Since lab work is no longer a "revenue source", this process is universally accepted & much more efficient than "ordering routine lab tests"

- manually lifting & moving patients is no longer permitted; clear heads & common sense has finally prevailed.

- Staffing patterns have been adapted to actual patient needs so the mindless compliance to an all 12-hour shift environment is long gone

- ventilator adjustments & hemodynamic titration is no longer a manual process - artificial intelligence guides algorithms to ensure support for specific patient outcomes; nurses only have to monitor, troubleshoot & re-program for new outcomes as necessary

- passwords have been replaced with bio-authentication methods (retinal scan, fingerprint or ?)

This sounds more like 20 years from now instead of 10. Technology is expensive. With low reimbursement and hospitals being ran like mini-mafias, I doubt all of these things would be implemented unless the NEW WORLD ORDER has taken over.

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Specializes in Oncology.

Hopefully private rooms. I think sharing a room, and worse, a bathroom, with a total stranger when sick is barbaric.

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Hopefully private rooms. I think sharing a room, and worse, a bathroom, with a total stranger when sick is barbaric.

All new hospitals are being built with only private rooms. I'm happy about that.

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Specializes in Pedi.

Nurses won't be making any more money in 10 years. ;)

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Hopefully private rooms. I think sharing a room, and worse, a bathroom, with a total stranger when sick is barbaric.

Especially when the other person has just had explosive diarrhea in the shared toilet after taking all the laxatives that post surgical patients are given. Would be okay if the toilet was cleaned out after that happened but they're not.

Or how about sharing a room with someone who snores. Kept me awake the whole night.

Never ever want to stay in the hospital again. Once was enough.

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Specializes in NICU/L&D, Hospice.

I suspect nurses will be doing all the housekeeping, cooking, serving, laundry, tech support, unit clerk, lab, stocking, maintenance, billing, registration, and pampering. Oh, lets not forget charting it all in 7 different areas. And maybe we can sneak in a little education, compassion, nursing, and advocacy. Think of the money the CEOs can save for bonuses! woot woot! haha

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