Part 1
Nurses will continue to play an important role in the health care delivery system. The United States just like any other country across the world is faced with challenges in the delivery of quality healthcare. For instance, an increased in the aging population creates a demand for quality care in the treatment of chronic diseases (Shi & Singh, 2014). To adequately address these challenges, transformation of nursing profession becomes necessary. Health care professionals are needed to take care of the patients in all settings that are; in the hospitals and homes. Caring for the sick is becoming complicated day in day out since hospitals are understaffed and hospitals are filled with patients (Zaccagnini & White, 2013). These challenges are forcing the nurses to have new roles outside of an acute hospital setting and more nurses are indulging themselves in research-based practice to find a solution to the challenges facing the healthcare sector. This paper, therefore, will serve the purpose of educating nurses how their profession will change and the impression of three nurses on how they think the nursing would change.
Nurses should embrace the continuum of care since this concept would enable them to offer acute care, home care, ambulatory care, extended care, and wellness programs to patients. The goal of this concept is to ensure that patients are provided with quality care and in a cost-effective manner. Reducing the cost of treatment would see to it that, everyone would have access to medical attention regardless of their background hence addressing health disparities. To address disparities nursing education programs are now gender sensitive. Additionally, the curriculum has embrace all cultures across the globe and train nurses on the significant of culture and spiritual competence to ensure nurses meet the needs of the patients from diverse society adequately. As such, nurses ought to design program that address specific needs of the patients. This can be adequately achieve by specialization and gaining advance education and training in a specific area of care such as family nurse or anesthetic nurse or other specialty such informatics. This concept is supported by disease management programs, health information systems, community-based services, and case management services.
Nurses also ought to embrace the concept of Accountable care organizations since they need to join the groups of doctors, other healthcare providers, and hospital who come together to voluntarily give coordinated high-quality health care to Medicare patients (Redman et al., 2015). It is important nurses take part in the interdisciplinary teams to ensure the interest of patients are address adequately since nurses spend more time with patients than other health practitioners This move ensures that patients especially those with chronic illnesses get the right treatment at the right time avoids duplication of services and prevention of medical errors. Just like the continuum of care, the concept also serves to ensure that everybody has access to Medicare by reducing the cost of care. More people require care across different setting such as primary care, hospitals, clinics and nursing homes in a cost effective way. This method, therefore, offers an integrated approach to delivering care. This integration can be supported by incorporating electronic health records and other technologies which have the potential of enhancing information sharing.
Medical homes started as centers for keeping child’s medical records with special health care needs. However, the role of these centers has changed significantly over time to reflect the changing needs in the healthcare delivery system (Shi & Singh, 2014). Today, medical homes have become a partnership between the community, patient, family and the healthcare provider. This partnership ensures that the primary care provided is patient centered, team based, compressive, coordinated, focused on quality and safety, and is accessible to all people (Auerbach et al., 2013). It is important that nurses engage in medical homes initiatives to promote the wellness of communities across the country. This concept also ensures that the health providers can meet patients wherever they are. As such, a nurse in any leadership position ought to ensure patients are treated with respect, compassion. This will foster good and lasting relationships with the caregivers.
Additionally nurse-managed health clinics are another change that nurses need to be aware of. The nurse-managed health clinics improve access to primary health care, increases the number of clinical teaching sites that offer primary care, increase the number of students undertaking community health nursing and establishing electronic processes that establish effective patient data collection (Shi & Singh, 2014). The nurse-managed clinics provide primary care to urban and rural areas in the United States. All these centers provide health promotion, disease management, and wellness. The goal of this concept is to ensure that all patients whether insured or not get medical attention. Therefore, it is important that nurses embrace the spirit of community health promotion programs and educate communities how they prevent certain diseases from occurring by living a healthy life which is characterized by healthy behaviors.
Part 2
I shared my presentation with my three colleagues in my department and I asked them on the anticipated changes in the health care delivery, the new role of nurses in hospitals, communities, clinics and in medical homes. They all admitted that the role of nurses in care delivery is changing for the better of the society.
MJ is registered nurse with 5 years of experience in the nursing profession. According to her, there are a lot of changes taking place in the healthcare delivery system. Nursing traditionally was reserved for the women alone but according to MJ, things have changed (Redman et al., 2015). Men have also joined the profession. Nurses have also been given more autonomy. Nurses have gained more mobility than before resulting to nurses being trained to higher levels of care to meet the growing needs of the society. As such, training and diversity of nursing profession will play a significant role in meeting the needs of clients for all genders.
Specialization is another area being experienced in the nursing profession. Nurses have started specializing in areas such as diabetes and pharmacology (Redman et al., 2015). Thus, this specialization makes nurses significant pillars in addressing specific chronic illness. Her impression of the changes in the health care delivery system is consistent with my research since she has also appreciated the role of a continuum of care in ensuring that there is continuity of care to the patients even when they are at home since this is a cost effective strategy. Therefore, nurse will play a vital role in addressing health disparities especially experienced by minority groups.
I also interviewed MS, a registered nurse with 2 years experienced in the nursing profession. Sarah defended the concept of medical homes. She likes the partnership that is advocated by the concept as it ensures that the primary care provided is patient centered, team based, compressive, coordinated, focused on quality and safety, and is accessible to all people (Zaccagnini & White, 2013). This concept also makes sure that the health caregivers can meet patients wherever they are effectively. She observed that most hospitals across the country have improved their processes to wastage elimination and efficiency improvement. Nurses are now becoming managers in various hospitals and this provide a vital avenue for nurse to contribute their expertise in improving care delivery and welfare of the nurses (Auerbach et al., 2013). According to MS, changes in the technology are the main driving force in changes experienced in the United States’ health care delivery system. The manner in which health records are stored has changed (Redman et al., 2015). The health care institutions have embraced electronic health records to store patients’ records. Training of the healthcare professionals has also changed over time. Qualifications for nurses have become in depth and very specific. There are many nursing programs, degrees, specialties, and certifications given to different types of nursing. The changes in nursing curriculum equip nurses with adequate knowledge on new technologies such as electronic health records. This help nurses to take active role in implementing these changes and ensure the incorporated technologies are friendly to the patients. This has made nurses not just to be seen as physician’s assistant but as medical practitioners with the knowledge to back up that of doctors (Zaccagnini & White, 2013). She appreciates the changes taking place in the sectors since nurses are seen as equal partners and are now at the forefront in addressing patients’ plight various interdisciplinary teams in hospitals or in homes.
KB who is also a registered nurse in our department with 3 years experience in nursing, appreciate changes in the health delivery system in the United States. She has been impressed by the level of collaboration that has been adopted in the health care sector. Physicians from different hospitals across the country are coordinating with nurses especially during emergencies and this has contributed to enhancing the quality of care and the safety of the patients (Zaccagnini & White, 2013). She also observes that more African Americans, Asians, American Indians, and Latinos have joined the profession. As such, the culture needs of the patients are now adequately met by this diversity in the nursing profession.
According to KB, the nurse managed medical homes promote health and wellness in the community by increasing the numbers of clinics in both rural and urban areas. As such, these initiatives coupled with community health promotions are instrumental in improving the well-being of communities in the United States (Shi & Singh, 2014). Therefore, engagement of nurses in community initiatives and medical homes is a significant role in achieving the vision of healthy people 2020.
Conclusively, it is true that nursing plays a major role in the health delivery in the United States and this is the reason why this sector is experiencing a lot of changes. All these changes are meant to increase the quality of care and the safety of patients. These changes such as the continuum of care, medical home, nurse managed medical clinics, and the accountable care organization are some of these positive changes that are improving the face of health care delivery in the united states. The impression of the three colleagues on these changes is in line with my study since they all expressed optimism on the changes.
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References
Auerbach, D. I., Staiger, D. O., Muench, U., & Buerhaus, P. I. (2013). The nursing workforce in an era of health care reform. New England Journal of Medicine, 368(16), 1470-1472.
Redman, R. W., Pressler, S. J., Furspan, P., & Potempa, K. (2015). Nurses in the United States with a practice doctorate: Implications for leading in the current context of health care. Nursing outlook, 63(2), 124-129.
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2014). Delivering health care in America. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Zaccagnini, M., & White, K. (2013). The doctor of nursing practice essentials. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
