Research and Explore the Changing Role of Nurses and Medicine
As the country focuses on the restructuring of the U.S. health care delivery system, nurses will continue to play an important role. It is expected that more and more nursing jobs will become available out in the community, and fewer will be available in acute care hospitals.
1.Write an informal presentation (500-700 words) to educate nurses about how the practice of nursing is expected to grow and change. Include the concepts of continuity or continuum of care, accountable care organizations (ACO), medical homes, and nurse-managed health clinics.
2.Share your presentation with nurse colleagues on your unit or department and ask them to offer their impressions of the anticipated changes to health care delivery and the new role of nurses in hospital settings, communities, clinics, and medical homes.
3.In 800-1,000 words summarize the feedback shared by three nurse colleagues and discuss whether their impressions are consistent with what you have researched about health reform.
4.A minimum of three scholarly references are required for this assignment.
While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide,
Trend#2: Nursing
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Trend#2: Nursing
Introduction
The role of nurses in the US is changing rapidly with nurses been continually tasked with a broad range of responsibilities. Caring for patients is increasingly becoming complicated while most healthcare organizations remain understaffed. With most of the population constituting aged people and the increasing rates of obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases, the health care system is faced with high number of complicated illnesses (American Academy of Nursing, 2010). This situation is further complicated by political forces as the politicians move to prove the prowess in terms of policy development. This paper seeks to investigate the current trends in nursing practice and healthcare in general and to try and make predictions about future developments in nursing. To achieve this role, the paper uses different both primary and secondary sources where past literature is examined and feedback from three nurses evaluated.
The Changing Role of Nurses
With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, the number of patients visiting hospitals rose significantly as they seek to leap from high quality and cost effective care. Nursing organizations, including but not limited to the American Nursing Association were keen on supporting the new reforms and emphasize on primary and preventive care. The American Nursing Association (ANA) is a service professional organization that represents the interests of registered nurses via its state/constituent member nurse’s associations (American Academy of Nursing, 2010). ANA enhances the nursing profession by promoting the rights of its members in the workplace, nurturing high standards of practice and lobbying, regulatory agencies and the government on issues related to nursing and patient care. Further, the organization helps in promoting the safety of nurses as well as patients, especially in the face of increased monetary considerations (College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta, 2008). The association has been on the forefront to redefine the role of nurses in the newly reformed health care system.
In essence, the nursing practice under the new reforms have changed to emphasize on the need for quality and cost-effective care. Today, most nurses are trained using the hospital-based model. However, much of care practices are moving away from hospital settings and more towards home-based care (Saver, 2006). With more and more baby boomers seeking home-based care, nurses are increasingly being required to attend to patients either at their homes or in care homes. Evidence suggests that there is a relationship between the length of hospital stay and the rate of mortality and morbidity. In line with this, it can be argued that hospital stay does not necessarily benefit the patient and may in fact lead to negative outcomes. Armed with this knowledge, there has been a shift from institutional care to individual responsibility. In the same way care has been moving away from nursing homes and hospitals towards retail, home and kiosks based care (College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta, 2008). Patients are increasing demands personal control in terms of their health, wellbeing which has in turn increased the number of self-diagnostic tests as well as number of innovative ways of delivering health care.
With increased emphasis on the need for continuum care, nursing practice is presented with new challenges that nurses must overcome to ensure that the objectives of the new reforms are met. Continuum care in this regard is understood in terms of care over time and a focus individual health needs of the patient. Continuum care in this regard is associated with fewer hospitalizations, better health outcomes, recognition of unidentified health needs, and improved access to health care and low number of emergency rooms’ visits. In relation to continuum care, it is the role of the nurse to facilitate and promote continuity of health care across all care settings and from one care provider to the other through provision of information relating to the patient, the expected health care outcome and the care plan. In this context, a registered nurse is expected to help the patient by giving them information relating to the structure of the healthca...