Benchmark Assignment: Evolving Practice of Nursing and Patient Care Delivery Models
Topic: Benchmark Assignment: Evolving Practice of Nursing and Patient Care Delivery Models ASSIGNMENT DETAILS: As the country focuses on the restructure 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 less 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 changes. 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 responses 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
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Benchmark assignment: Evolving Practice of Nursing and Patient Care Delivery Models
How the practice of nursing is expected to grow and change
The practice of nursing is anticipated to change in terms of not only practice, but also leadership and education in order to attain its function in providing health care in the U.S. (Burnley, 2010). The concept of continuity of care is a vital element of good primary care together with other concepts like integration of care, patient-centered care and coordination of care. Continuity of care or continuum of care simply refers to the association that exists between a practitioner and a patient, which will go beyond particular episodes of disease. In essence, the concept of continuity of care is defined by 2 major constituents: a focus on the individual context and health requirements of the client; and care over time – future, present and past. With the restructuring of United States healthcare delivery system, continuity of care will mostly entail discharge planning following acute care, from hospital to self-care or community (Tine et al., 2010). The objective will be to sustain a reliable approach to care between nurses and to personalize care to the changing requirements of the patient during a disease. The types of continuity are relational continuity, which is a continuous therapeutic relationship between a provider and patient; management continuity, which is a consistent approach to the management of an illness that is responsive to the changing requirements of a patient. Third is informational continuity, which entails using information on past incidents as well as individual circumstances in making the present care relevant for every client (Gold, 2013).
One of the major and most important ways wherein Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is seeking to lower costs of healthcare is through encouraging hospitals, physicians and other providers of healthcare to create networks for coordinating care better; this would ensure that costs remain low (Gold, 2013). In order to accomplish that, the law is implementing Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) program. ACOs are simply groups of healthcare providers who work in teamwork in order to organize healthcare for a grouping of patients, with the objective of offering patient-centered, high quality care and lowering costs (Toussaint, Milstein & Shortell, 2013). Every nurse has an essential role to play with regards to helping and facilitating ACOs provide high quality care at reduced costs.
The need to restructure the healthcare system in the U.S. has also brought about the notion of the medical home to meet the growing needs of providing access to healthcare and managing chronic care in a more effective manner. The principles of medical home model essentially comprise the attendance of a personal doctor in a doctor directed practice. This personal doctor would concentrate on the whole individual and would give integrated and synchronized care which is safe and high quality, which improves access and for which there is suitable payment (Stange et al., 2012). However, the significant error in this Medical Home model is the fact that its promoters do not incorporate other essential providers of primary care such as nurses. The ACA also resulted in the development and operation of Nurse Managed Health Clinics (NHMS) program. This program supports nurse-managed clinics that enhance access to primary care, enhances the practice of nursing through increasing the number of clinical teaching sites for community health and primary care nursing students. This program also serves as primary care access points in places wherein providers of primary care are few (Burnley, 2010; Tine et al., 2010).
Anticipated changes to healthcare delivery and the new role of nurses in hospital settings, communities, clinics and medical homes
The following are the responses shared by the nurses. Their impressions are consistent with what I have researched about health reform. On the restructured United States healthcare delivery system, an ACO has the responsibility to manage the health of its patient grouping as well as the costs linked to offering care. The nurses in the U.S. would have very crucial tasks in ACOs as they help in providing patient-centered, high quality care whilst lowering costs. The new roles of nurses in ACOs are follows: providers of advanced levels of care; communicators; quality improvement managers; and serving as care coordinators (Toussaint, 2013)...