This essay is both a descriptive work that describes cloud computing technology and a reflective piece that demonstrates the importance of this technology on my current and future career. Cloud computing is defined and explained in detail as the pros and cons of the issues are weighed in relation to healthcare and nursing in general.
Cloud Nursing
Technology advancement within today's society ensures that new ways of performing tasks must be learned. This cycle of discovery is at the heart of every academic or professional pursuit that molds and evolves our methods and thinking patterns. The digital revolution that has occurred throughout the last two decades has forced many industries to alter their approach to their tasks, requiring re-education and an open mind ready to welcome these new ideas into practice and use.
The purpose of this essay is to explain the notion of cloud computing and how this technological practice is modifying the world we live in. This essay will introduce basic and key concepts related to cloud computing to demonstrate its effect on today's world. To further enhance this argument, this essay will explore my personal career goals and how they relate to the notion of cloud computing and the effects of this practice. This essay will also demonstrate how I am planning to incorporate cloud computing into my future professional endeavors and how to best utilize this information for that purpose.
Background
Cloud computing is a new step in online communication. The cloud itself is a general term that can relate to hardware packages, networks, storage devices and other interchanges that combine to present a computing service. The cloud, much like real clouds, is not immediately available and must be accessed in order to receive the data in question.
The cloud services can perform many tasks that have far reaching implications for many industries and educational systems. The cloud can deliver software, infrastructure designs and storage capabilities over the internet. This allows the end user to be freed of maintaining huge databases of information and purchasing software that is complicated and expensive. Cloud computing is essentially meant to deliver a new sense of freedom and flexibility for those working with computer technology.
Cloud computing can arrive in many different forms, and the term "cloud" simply means off-site location. There are public clouds and private clouds that provide varying levels of security and service. The cloud can have significant impacts on the way all industries operate today and can eliminate many of the constraints of a typical computing environment such as time, cost, power and space.
The Importance of Cloud Computing and My Career
My current occupation is a legal assistant and I have enjoyed the many experiences that this opportunity has granted me. My future, however, is in nursing, and I have received the impulse to help care for others in a new capacity. The career field of nursing, and healthcare in general has been a proving ground for all kinds of new technologies in the past. It should be no surprise that cloud computing is playing a large role in how nursing professionals carry out their job.
Tiffin (2012) described this new landscape for health care professionals as challenging and requiring new approaches to old problems. He wrote " new health care technology is also creating opportunities for nurses. More and more aspects of the profession are electronic: Test results, X-rays, blood work, and ordering medication. An array of new technologies -- mobile devices, electronic medical records, cloud computing, and teleconferencing -- invite nurses to be digitally ambitious." Along with this technological expertise, nurses are also branching out into other parts of healthcare with more of a leadership role. Nursing is becoming very important in the varying ways that healthcare is changing.
The healthcare system is hurting in many ways and technology is needed to help correct many of the problems this industry is having. Cloud computing appears to have some significant features that can alleviate many of these issues that is hampering the effectiveness of nurses in today's medical field. Good (2013) takes it one step further and urges the need to implement these technologies as soon as possible and wherever possible. He suggested " a recent study by the firm MarketsandMarkets indicates that the healthcare cloud computing market, which is only currently about 4% of the industry, is expected to grow to nearly $5.4 billion by 2017. The cloud migration process, however, can be daunting for healthcare organizations since they have to move a ton of data."
There are several important features of cloud computing that make it appealing to the healthcare industry. One of these reasons is security. Medical information is very sensitive, and extremely valuable in some instances. This information needs to be accessed by the proper people on demand when time is of the essence. Cloud computing systems can encrypt, back up and secure large amounts of data and protect this data with sophisticated protocols that ensure lawful compliance and protection from other unwarranted sources.
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