The way forward for nursing: a moment of paradigm shift

Dan Weberg, RN, PhD, MHI, BSN

There is a wealth of literature on innovation that describes why industries and markets transform over time. One of the catalysts for dramatic change in industries as they experience unthinkable events. The Covid-19 pandemic falls into the category of unthinkable events and has highlighted each the cracks in our healthcare system and the opportunities to enhance it. Nursing specifically is in a moment of paradigm shift, and we as a occupation have a selection: deal with the past or catalyze into the long run.

The historic failure of the video rental company Blockbuster provides an identical path for nurses to learn from. In short, Blockbuster refused to evolve its business within the face of adjusting technology and consumer demands and ultimately doubled down on the present practices that led to its initial success. Meanwhile, a brand new entrant into the video industry, Netflix, was actively improving every aspect of Blockbuster’s broken model. No late fees, no shipping videos, and the creation of forward-thinking technologies ultimately led to the essential entertainment solution we all know today.

Similarly, nursing is at an identical point. Our skilled work has been based on older models of education, manual tasks and 12-hour shifts, and in each of them there may be latest evidence of how we will improve. Meanwhile, the health care system is being dramatically disrupted by latest entrants like Amazon Care, Apple, and Google which have a watch for change, technology expertise, and a mission to deliver cost-effective value to consumers. The current practices of traditional healthcare entities will soon not apply. This perfect storm offers nursing an incredible opportunity to leap into the long run.

With all this disruption comes opportunity. When groups are broken down, the barrier to alter is usually lowered and there isn’t a selection but to adapt to changing conditions. Think of all of the practices we now have held closely for many years that modified immediately attributable to the pandemic. Whether it was the variety of approvals needed to make a change, the way in which we spread the skills of clinical nurses in latest ways, or the rapid innovation that kept us and our patients protected. Nurses were providing high-quality care and adapting to it faster than ever before in history. And now we’re faced with a selection: we will keep the great changes and adaptations or go the way in which of a blockbuster and quickly return to our former occupation.

As nurses, we must always embrace these disruptions and changes, using them to construct the long run we wish as a occupation. Here are some ways this occupation can turn out to be stronger, higher and more future-oriented.

• Embrace Technology – The way forward for healthcare will depend largely on high-tech care. Until now, nursing has not been well placed to advocate and communicate these solutions. Let’s go to the table.
• Revolutionize Education – Poster boards and lectures proceed to be the dominant teaching methods in any respect levels of nursing. To construct the nursing workforce of the long run, we must embrace virtual reality, team learning, and interprofessional fundamentals.
• Embrace a changing workforce – Nurses entering our occupation today should not have the identical values ​​as before. They value flexibility, independence and support over brand loyalty, pensions and years of service. Let us work to adopt latest concepts of labor to support the continued evolution of our occupation.

As nurses, we now have shown throughout our history that our occupation can rise to the challenge and adapt to the changing needs of patients. This moment, post-pandemic, is one other paradigm-shifting moment in nursing, and I hope we decide the Netflix route as a substitute of the Blockbuster route.