Introduction
Healthcare professionals rely on emerging clinical guidelines and resources to provide patient-centered medical services. Nurses engage in practicum sessions to interact with patients and other clinicians to learn more about the existing opportunities and challenges affecting the sector. This paper describes the findings and observations made after spending 2 hours working with a specific family. In this unit, a patient was suffering from T2D. While identifying some of the potential advantages and potential drawbacks, the exercise focused on issues of healthcare technologies, community resources, and care coordination associated with diabetes.
Health Care Technology, Coordination of Care, and Community Resources
Healthcare technology remains critical in helping patients to record positive health outcomes. The selected family had a member suffering from type 2 diabetes (T2D). From the practicum, it emerged that the individual was using a blood pressure cuff, glucose monitor, and pulse oximeter. Additionally, the family members always guided the individual to use smartphone applications to manage diabetes. Such apps offered timely updates and reminders about what to eat when to exercise, and when to take insulin. The practicum revealed that the family members were embracing the power of telehealth to support the patient. This was achieved through constant collaboration with the patient’s health providers (Nerpin et al., 2020). The use of websites focusing on diabetes emerged as a norm for the studied family. The adoption and use of such technologies resulted in timely and effective disease monitoring and management practices.
Similarly, the practicum supported the argument that proper care coordination procedures and the inclusion of community resources could help improve the outcomes of diabetic patients. For instance, the practicum revealed that the patient had opted for home care since she was able to receive physical therapy and symptom management. The model also allowed the involved family members to offer dialysis, thereby supporting the nature of care delivery (Mathews et al., 2019). The individuals in the family revealed that transport was available to meet the intended problem-related consultations and appointments. The patient was also a member of a focus group that played a significant role in addressing the problem. The individuals remained involved and willing to improve their health experiences. Finally, religious institutions helped the patient achieve spiritual fulfillment. These efforts amounted to effective care coordination for diabetes.
The completed practicum has offered numerous insights into the positive impact of healthcare technology on patients with various chronic conditions, such as diabetes. In a study by Cahn et al. (2018), it emerged that mobile-based apps were capable of guiding patients with diabetes to understand the nature of the disease and engage in self-management practices. Such apps can guide family members and the patient to know when specific actions have to be performed, including taking insulin (Cahn et al., 2018). In another article, Ashrafzadeh and Hamdy (2019) supported the use of websites and other Internet-based resources since they offered evidence-based and timely insights about diabetes, proper management practices, and desirable treatment regimes. However, Cahn et al. (2018) observed that such technologies were problematic because they required increased financial resources, additional training on their use, the need for power, and Internet access. These requirements could be costly and unavoidable to many patients, thereby affecting the overall level of technology adoption.
One of the outstanding core standards governing nursing practice is the ability to offer patient-centered care coordination. These professionals were also required to adopt emerging ideas and policies to meet patients’ needs. When done properly, the practicum supported the fact that the effective use of community resources could help address patients’ needs. This evidence resonates with the observations made in normal practice. Ashrafzadeh and Hamdy (2019) argue the effective combination of emerging technologies and community resources could amount to care coordination. There was also a need to include other professionals and family members to support the process and help deliver positive results (Mathews et al., 2019). However, some barriers exist that could affect the nature of the intended outcomes. For instance, the practicum revealed that any patient who was not technologically savvy could find it hard to benefit from the practice. The absence of adequate financial resources for purchasing the relevant equipment and accessing the Internet could disorient the intended goals in successful diabetes management. Another possible barrier could be the absence of proper infrastructure and support systems for patients in the advanced stages of the disease.
Nonetheless, the observation made after interacting with the specific family supported the fact the use of such technologies resonated with the established state board standards for nursing practice. For instance, practitioners were required to engage, educate, and involve patients in the use of healthcare technology. During the practicum, I realized that I could continue to apply such policies to integrate and make modern technologies part of my care delivery processes. I will identify the right systems, mobile devices, and systems that could help maximize patient safety and keep costs as low as possible. Such policies support nurses’ scope of practice by allowing them to interact, guide, and empower patients (Isaacs et al., 2020). Similarly, I will always remain ethical and promote the existing code of ethics to address diabetes and other diseases while maintaining the highest level of professional integrity. Nursing ethics will dictate my approach to using emerging technology and care coordination to deal with various conditions.
Personal Experiences
For the practicum, I identified a family with four members. The head of this family was the one who had diabetes and needed professional support. After completing the exercise, I learned that modern technologies in health care were necessary for improving the experiences of more patients. Additionally, the promotion of proper care coordination and the presence of adequate community resources could help improve the level of access to medical services (Isaacs et al., 2020). The emerging insights will guide and help me to achieve positive results in my professional practice.
The observations from the practicum supported various evidence-based practices (EBPs) in health care. For instance, Nerpin et al. (2020) indicated that healthcare professionals could rely on the use of health technologies to access emerging guidelines, evaluate the evidence, and offer personalized care. Experts could use these systems to empower, guide, and allow nurse practitioners to make timely decisions and support patient care. The provision of insulin injections, the use of oximeters, and glucose monitors are good examples of EBPs associated with the management of T2D.
The process and experience from this practicum can help deliver proper strategies for disease management. For instance, the approach helps explore the identified chronic condition, examine some of the established procedures, and the best insights for maximizing safety. When done properly, patients can benefit from the available community resources, care coordination efforts, and healthcare technologies. These considerations helped reduce financial costs for the wider family while promoting patient safety (American Association of Diabetes Educators, 2019). From the acquired experiences, I was able to identify the best approaches to address the problem and guide the patient to record better outcomes shortly. I would also replicate the same approaches to help more patients with T2D in the selected community. The idea to collaborate with other professionals to address various conditions can help improve patients’ experiences, including nurse practitioners, community health nurses, sociologists, and clinicians.
Finally, the practicum offered several aspects that were of great interest to me. Specifically, I was happy to learn that emerging technologies were appropriate and capable of meeting the demands of more citizens. This topic is of particular interest since I will consider it to develop a personal philosophy of care delivery that embraces emerging healthcare systems and technologies (Nerpin et al., 2020). The strategy will encourage me to identify emerging technologies and systems that resonate with the changing health demands of more patients with chronic conditions.
Conclusion
The above discussions have offered numerous insights about health technologies and their roles in supporting patients in home care settings. The practicum revealed that patients suffering from T2D could benefit from personalized efforts, apps, and websites that shed more light on the disease. Individuals could rely on such ideas to take insulin and take the right foods. Such emerging observations resonate with the EBPs found in the literature. Professionals could, therefore, merge these concepts to design superior philosophies of care delivery and continue to meet the changing needs of their patients with chronic conditions.
References
American Association of Diabetes Educators. (2019). Role of the diabetes educator in inpatient diabetes management. The Science of Diabetes Self-Management and Care, 45(1), 60-65. Web.
Ashrafzadeh, S., & Hamdy, O. (2019). Patient-driven diabetes care of the future in the technology era. Cell Metabolism, 29(3), 564-575. Web.
Cahn, A., Akirov, A., & Raz, I. (2018). Digital health technology and diabetes management. Journal of Diabetes, 10(1), 10-17. Web.
Isaacs, D., Cox, C., Schwab, K., Oser, T. K., Rinker, J., Mason, M. J., Greenwood, D. A., & Albanese-O’Neill, A. (2020). Technology integration: The role of the diabetes care and education specialist in practice. The Science of Diabetes Self-Management and Care, 46(4), 323-334. Web.
Mathews, R., O’Malley, C., Hall, J. M., Macaden, L., & MacRury, S. (2019). Diabetes, care homes, and the influence of technology on practice and care delivery in care homes: Systematic review and qualitative synthesis. JMIR Diabetes, 4(2), e11526. Web.
Nerpin, E., Toft, E., Fischier, J., Lindholm-Olinder, A., & Leksell, J. (2020). A virtual clinic for the management of diabetes-type 1: Study protocol for a randomised wait-list controlled clinical trial. BMC Endocrine Disorders, 20(1), 137-143. Web.