NR 447 Week 7: Discussion- Technology in Healthcare

Technology in Health Care

            In health care system, technology plays a vital role of helping in the transformation of unsustainable systems to sustainable one, leverage the association between healthcare professionals and patients, and ensure affordable, faster, and more efficient solutions for various health conditions. The focus of this paper is to address the advantages and disadvantages of using company devices for professional communication and to determine the best options between personal and company devices for professional communication.

Advantages of using Company Devices for Professional Communication

            Cell phones foster communication in the organization by enabling employees to receive critical calls conveniently. They are also essential in getting in touch with providers who spend most of their time in different places, wards, or departments. In health care organizations, the major benefit of using company devices is to improve communication, especially for the health care professionals such as nurses and other clinicians who keep moving from place to place within the organization or ward to care for different patients. Cell phones come with different features such as phone calls, emails, texts, and video chats that can be used to enhance patient outcomes. It is also easier for an organization to install communication apps in its devices such as Slack and other apps for different analytics. Moreover, having communication devices makes it easier to keep in touch all the times including non-business hours, in case there is an emergency that needs to be addressed. Importantly, by having company devices for professional communication, the employers can choose a common hardware, carrier, and operating system that best suits the organizational needs (Stair & Reynolds, 2020). This can enhance internal communication and also streamline work for the IT department.

Disadvantages of using Company Devices for Professional Communication

            There are several disadvantages associated with use of company devices for communication. First, there is a challenge of frequent monitoring of various apps. As such, many texts may not be noticed for days despite checking emails, voice mail, and Slack. Some staff may also become bothered by frequent calls and may experience stress due to the feeling of being overwhelmed. There is also risk of miscommunication due to misinterpretation of vital information, lack of body language, and vocal inflections. There are also security risks associated with company devices. The devices can be stolen, cyber security issues such as hacking, and some employees may also be careless and allow unauthorized persons to have access to the device leading to privacy and confidentiality breaches. There are also productivity concerns in the workplace since some employees may be tempted to use social media, watch videos, or listen to music which can disrupt productivity (Stephens et al., 2017).

Choosing between Personal and Company Devices

            Personally, company devices for professional communication are the best choice since the employers can choose a common hardware, carrier, and operating system that best suits the organizational needs. This can enhance internal communication and also streamline work for the IT department. However, personal devices expose the organization to various IT risks since employees uses different types of devices, apps, operating systems, and services. Moreover, it is challenging to safeguard personal devices from IT security treats in the absence of mobile device management (Stephens et al., 2017). It is also difficult to enforce IT policies while using personal devices since some employees will follow them and fail to follow them.

References

Stair, R., & Reynolds, G. (2020). Principles of information systems. Cengage Learning.

Stephens, K., Zhu, Y., Harrison, M., Iyer, M., Hairston, T., & Luk, J. (2017, January). Bring your own mobile device (BYOD) to the hospital: Layered boundary barriers and divergent boundary management strategies. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/41584

Step 1: Read the following case study:

In a local home healthcare agency, nurses are using their personal cell phones to email and text physicians, the agency, and local hospitals. The agency is considering providing the nurses company cell phones with a secure login. There are advantages and disadvantages of each option.

Step 2: Your first post is based on the first letter of your last name. For example, if your last name is Smith, you would address the use of company devices. Please consider impact of use, tracking of information, security, education, cost, and maintenance.

The First Letter of your Last Name	Question to Answer
A-M	What are the advantages of using personal devices for professional communication? What are the disadvantages of using personal devices for professional communication? If you were the agency, would you choose personal or company devices? Explain your choice.
N-Z	What are the advantages of using company devices for professional communication? What are the disadvantages of using company devices for professional communication? If you were the agency, would you choose personal or company devices? Explain your choice.

Step 3: Reply to classmates in either group.

Your discussion post should look like:

• Paragraph one: Discuss advantages of the assigned device (based on last name)
• Paragraph two: Discuss disadvantages of the assigned device (based on last name)
• Paragraph three: Explain your personal opinion of which device should be selected.
• Resources: Where did you find your data?

SOLUTION

Hello Professor and Classmates

The advantages of using a company device for professional communication are many.  Improvement in communication is one of the key advantages. The ability to get hold of other healthcare team members immediately can have direct consequences on patients’ lives.  Additionally, company devices also help to get the right information to the right people at the right time (Finkelman, 2020).  Healthcare personnel are often in different locations when collaboration is needed. Maintaining safe patient care may require fast, accurate communication among……