Counselor Patricia Djambazian held a nursing facility panel in the Student Center on May 13, titled “My Life as a Nurse,” to celebrate National Nurse Week, giving insight in the nursing field and how it could change in the future.

During the panel, Emelyn Judge, nursing program director was asked: “What are the three main changes you foresee in the medical field and how do you prepare your students to adjust and adapt to these changes?”

Judge explained how in a recent medical Southern California meeting she discovered there will be a shortage of nurses in the future, specifically in the pedestrians, intensive care unit (ICU) and so forth, encouraging students to seek these specific paths.

“In the nursing field changes are occurring because of the demographical change, such as to people living longer, chronic illnesses, more affordable care packages and technology improvements,” Judge said.

She continued to elaborate on the fact that there are a several different roles for nurses out there, such as care coordinator, family corporative, facilitator, health coach for administrator and teaching nursing classes at schools.
Jing Johnson, an assistant professor of nursing science and a participant of the panel was asked: “How is the nursing field affected by the constant change of technology?”

“I have been working as a nurse since 1999, and of course, there are constant changes,” Johnson said.

“Just in the time that I’ve been a nurse I’ve seen so many changes, such as having electronic medical records and the equipment we use for the patients.”
She explains how there are both pros and cons to the rapid technology change in the nursing field. A pro is the efficiency that technology will bring to the environment. For instance, the improvement of communication between patient and doctor.

“We are all able to communicate better with technology, which evidently is a good thing because things don’t get mixed and less errors occur. Anything that we can do to better our patient’s outcome is always a definite,” Johnson explained.
She went on to inform how because of the new technology in the nursing field there is improved access to healthcare, and patients are able to access their medical records or email their physicians.

The records are universal allowing everyone to see it. This improves communication between nurses, and other fields in the medical practice, such as physicians, physical therapists, and any other disciplines that are working with patients.

A con she mentioned was that nurses are expected to learn the new technologies/devices on the job, which can be time consuming and take time away from the patient.

For this issue, Johnson advises focusing on the patients and getting back to the basics.

“In my class I [stress the importance of] physical assessment skills, because that will never change,” she said.

“Technology sometimes fails and nurses should be able to detect a problem and not only rely on technology. Overall, technology is an amazing thing, and in the future of course it will benefit patients even more so.”

GCC’s nursing program collaborates with universities including Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge and Cal State Fullerton. These universities help enroll students who’ve earned their associate degree within a year.

After the program, classes will be available in the summer so students can receive their Bachelor of Arts degree.

There will also be online classes available to help make the experience more efficient.