Healthcare Information Technology Trends DQ 2
This prompt asks four separate things and ends by naming three categories the promise must land in. Answering it as one flowing essay loses marks that were simply on offer.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 25, 2026
Four questions, and the last one names its own categories
Map the prompt before writing, because it is a sequence of separate demands and each one is gradeable on its own. Trends you have observed, in your organisation, comes first, and the word observed rules out reciting industry predictions: a trend you have watched change practice on your unit is worth more than three you read about. Challenges and risks inherent in those technologies comes second. Then a benefit and a risk specifically across data safety, legislation and patient care, which is three lenses rather than one. Then the most promising trend, with a reason, and finally whether the promise contributes to patient care outcomes, efficiencies or data management, which are the categories the prompt has chosen for you and should be used by name. Answer them in that order and the post becomes easy to mark, which is usually the same thing as easy to read.
The legislation lens is the one nurses most often leave thin, and it is the easiest to fix. A remote monitoring device or a messaging app raises concrete questions about protected health information on personal devices, about consent for data collected outside a clinical encounter, about who is liable when an alert is generated and nobody is rostered to watch it, and about whether a telehealth encounter across a state line is within your licence. Those are specific, citable and immediately clinical. When you choose the most promising trend, resist the largest one: artificial intelligence is a category rather than a trend, and a narrower claim, such as ambient documentation reducing charting time or asset tracking reducing time spent searching for a pump, is easier to evidence and lands cleanly in one of the three categories the prompt names. Choose the narrow version and the final categorisation writes itself.
Likely learning objectives
- Separate a prompt's sequence into individually gradeable answers.
- Distinguish an observed trend from an industry prediction.
- Answer the legislation lens with concrete regulatory questions.
- Choose a narrow trend that can be evidenced and categorised.
Assignment instructions
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
In this Discussion, you will reflect on your healthcare organization’s use of technology and offer a technology trend you observe in your environment. To Prepare: Reflect on the Resources related to digital information tools and technologies. Consider your healthcare organization’s use of healthcare technologies to manage and distribute information. Reflect on current and potential future trends, such as use of social media and mobile applications/telehealth, Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled asset tracking, or expert systems/artificial intelligence, and how they may impact nursing practice and healthcare delivery. Post a brief description of general healthcare technology trends, particularly related to data/information you have observed in use in your healthcare organization or nursing practice. Describe any potential challenges or risks that may be inherent in the technologies associated with these trends you described. Then, describe at least one potential benefit and one potential risk associated with data safety, legislation, and patient care for the technologies you described. Next, explain which healthcare technology trends you believe are most promising for impacting healthcare technology in nursing practice and explain why. Describe whether this promise will contribute to improvements in patient care outcomes, efficiencies, or data management. Be specific and provide examples. 3 to 5 References less tha 5 years
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
What DQ 2 requires
- 01A brief description of general healthcare technology trends related to data and information observed in your organisation or nursing practice.
- 02Potential challenges or risks inherent in those technologies.
- 03At least one potential benefit and one potential risk relating to data safety, legislation and patient care.
- 04An explanation of which trends are most promising and why.
- 05Whether that promise will contribute to improvements in patient care outcomes, efficiencies or data management.
- 063 to 5 references less than five years old.
Observed, risky, promising, and where the promise lands
Trends you have actually seen
Describe technology in use where you work and what changed because of it.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Observation rather than prediction.
Inherent challenges and risks
Identify what these technologies make harder or riskier.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Risks intrinsic to the technology, not to its rollout.
Data safety
Cover protected information, device security and access control.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A specific exposure rather than a general concern.
Legislation
Cover consent, liability, licensure across state lines and record obligations.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Named regulatory questions.
Patient care
State the benefit and the risk at the bedside.
What the assessor is likely looking for
Consequences for a patient, not for the organisation.
The most promising trend
Choose one, justify it, and place it in one of the three named categories.
What the assessor is likely looking for
A narrow, evidenced claim placed by category.
Where the technology evidence sits
Recommended databases
- PubMed Central
- MedlinePlus
- WHO
- NCBI Bookshelf
Search sequence
- 1.Search recent literature on the specific technology you have observed.
- 2.Read telehealth material for the licensure and consent questions.
- 3.Look up AI governance guidance for the risk side.
- 4.Check publication dates so every reference is inside five years.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Telehealth Systems
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Telehealth systems, for the clinical and regulatory framing of remote care.
Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health
World Health Organization · 2021
Ethics and governance of AI for health, for the risk lens on automated tools.
Use of Telehealth in Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan Areas, United States 2021-2023
National Center for Health Statistics, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
Telehealth use data, for evidencing an observed trend with figures.
The association between perceived electronic health record usability and professional burnout among US nurses
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 28(8), 1632-1641 · 2021
EHR usability and burnout, for the efficiency category.
The Use of Health Information Exchange to Augment Patient Handoff in Long-Term Care: A Systematic Review
Applied Clinical Informatics · 2018
Information exchange in handoffs, for the patient care category.
Before you post
Common mistakes
- Describing industry trends you have not observed in practice.
- Answering the benefit-and-risk question once instead of across three lenses.
- Leaving the legislation lens vague.
- Choosing artificial intelligence as the trend rather than a specific application.
- Not naming which of the three categories the promise falls into.
Submission checklist
- Is at least one trend genuinely observed in your setting?
- Are data safety, legislation and patient care each addressed?
- Is the most promising trend specific enough to evidence?
- Have you named outcomes, efficiencies or data management explicitly?
- Are all references under five years old?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read Brinevia's academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Maren Caldwell
MSN, RN, CNE
Medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology and NCLEX preparation
Maren is a registered nurse with over 15 years of clinical and educational experience in medical-surgical nursing. She writes on NCLEX preparation, patient care fundamentals, pharmacology and evidence-based practice.
Reviewed by
Dr. Tessa Redmond
DNP, RN, CNE
Evidence-based practice and clinical education
Tessa is a doctorally-prepared nurse educator. She reviews Brinevia content for clinical accuracy and alignment with current evidence-based guidelines.