By Telehealth’s Growth Brings Security and Privacy Worries
The usage of telehealth services grew substantially in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has brought concerns about security and privacy for any healthcare provider that offers telehealth services to their patients. Any nurse who provides some type of care using telehealth needs to know all of the rules regarding HIPAA and informed consent. Any nurse should get consent from a patient before they engage in telehealth services. Part of this is discussing what the patient should do if there is a technology problem during the telehealth appointment.
HIPAA compliance is always a major necessity for nurses. Telehealth’s growth has only increased the importance of HIPAA compliance. A nurse must make sure that any platform they use is secure enough that sensitive data can be communicated safely. This helps protect the patient’s privacy.
Specialization Is Becoming Increasingly Important
Another crucial trend for nursing in 2021 is the fact that specialization is even more important than it was previously. Nurses are now able to practice more specialties than they could in earlier years. Additionally, a nurse that specializes in a specific field is more attractive to employers than a nurse without a particular specialization. It is likely that nurses will be able to specialize in more and more fields as time goes on as a result of many factors, including technological advancement.
Online Nursing Education Programs Are Becoming More Common
Nursing is a highly important part of the healthcare field as a whole. As a result, the need to provide education for future nurses remains critically important. More educational institutions like colleges and universities are offering online nursing education programs. Online education is a viable option for anyone, but it makes even more sense for nurses so that they can work full-time and complete their education at the same time. Online education for nurses like CCNE accredited online MSN programs will likely only become more commonplace as time passes.
More Nursing Professors Will Be Needed
As you might expect with an increase in online nursing education, there is an increase in the number of nursing students, too. One of the things that that means is that there is a need for more nursing professors to educate this growing number of nursing students, too. Education programs will also have to make working as a nursing professor more appealing so that the supply of nursing professors keeps up with the demand for nursing professors.
Nurses Are Now Retiring at a Later Time
One more trend that is happening in the field of nursing in 2021 is that nurses are now retiring later than they were previously. This trend is complex and provides both a benefit and a downside, as well. The benefit of nurses retiring later is that it helps with the increased demand for nurses, since nurses won’t have to be replaced in the workplace as frequently. However, it also means that there are limited nursing opportunities in hospitals. This is related to the fact that older nurses tend to work in hospitals.
